The Bottlenose Dolphin is the most commonly seen and best known of the three Townsville Dolphins. By its nature it is a show-pony and enjoys the company of boats, often seen riding the bow wave shown in the pictures below.

The Bottlenose is the famous Dolphin from the TV Series 'Flipper'. Its charisma is one if its great downfalls leading it to be a common recruit in Oceanariums and dolphin shows.

The Bottlenose is the least threatened of the three Townsville Dolphins in Australian waters. The same can't be said for the poor dolphin in Japanese waters where it often ends up in Dolphin Burgers. Talk about the total ecotourism experience!

The below information is sourced from: Review of the Conservation Status of Australia's Smaller Whales and Dolphins - Graham J. B. Ross - February 2006

Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

The level of information available on the biology and habitat of Tursiops truncatus, in relation to threats or potential threats it faces, is generally limited. However, the species' wide distribution and abundance suggest that it may be less threatened than those classified as NCA(a) and it is recommended that it be reclassified NCA(b).

Conservation objectives .

As described in The Action Plan for Australian Cetaceans : the objectives are

• to monitor abundance, especially in key areas,
• to determine possible impact of threats, such as pollutants and habitat degradation;
• determine the levels of pollutants in individuals and in prey fish to assess possible impact in different areas;
• study habitat requirements to assess impacts of degradation;
• derive a relationship between aerial survey estimates and absolute abundance to be estimated and monitored;
• compare genetics and morphology between Australian and other regions to assess taxonomic status of Australian animals;
• establish life history parameters for Australian animals to allow better interpretation of population trends and effects of threats;
• determine effects of ecotourism operations (e.g., feeding stations) on animals.

Family Delphinidae. Tursiops truncatus , Bottlenose Dolphin (Montagu, 1821) [68417]

EPBC Act Status: Cetacean: Approved Recovery Plan: none.

Conservation Status: The Action Plan for Australian Cetaceans status - no category assigned, because of insufficient information (NCA(a))

IUCN status: Insufficiently known

CITES Status: Appendix II (based on placement prior to taxonomic changes) / Data Deficient

Tursiops truncatus : Census of Australian Vertebrate Species 1612, updated 31 December 1998.

Marine protected areas managed for or relevant to the species include the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone (200 n miles), and the areas subject to International Whaling Commission regulations - the Indian Ocean Sanctuary and Southern Ocean Sanctuary.

Taxonomic status.

The genus Tursiops has long been regarded as monotypic, with T. truncatus as the single cosmopolitan species. Although several other species have been described as new species on morphological grounds, the range of variation across the genus led to most of these being synonymised with T. truncatus . A review of these species using genetic techniques showed that T. aduncus Ehrenberg 1832 ranks as a full species (LeDuc 1999) (see description for that species for further references). Morphological differences

between the two are described by Hale et al. (2000). The similarity of T. aduncus to Stenella, however, indicates that further revision of the Delphinidae is required.

Distribution. Cosmopolitan between about 65ºN and 55ºS, in both coastal and offshore waters. In the Australian region, T. truncatus generally occurs further offshore in deeper water than T. aduncus . Its distribution is not well known; the few records are from Queensland , New South Wales , Tasmania , South Australia and southwestern Western Australia .

Distribution showing presence in the oceanic, slope and shelf regions (based on AGSO 1996 depth/slope bathymetric classification) of the Australian marine area (based on AMBIS version 1), south to 55ºS. The distribution is broadly based on the Species Profile and Threats database account.

Biology. No information is available on the biology of this species in Australian waters. On the south-east coast of South Africa , where T. aduncus and T. truncatus occupy similar onshore/offshore habitats to those on southern coast of Australia , the longest animal on record was a 3.27 m long male; other animals between 2.6 m and 2.8 m were sexually immature or maturing; all were distinctly longer than T. aduncus . The only female examined was sexually mature, at a length of 2.8 m. Stomach contents of two dolphins included beaks of lycoteuthid squids, and otoliths of the gadid Merluccius sp. and Lepidopus caudatus. These items suggested capture in deep, cool water (Ross 1984).