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Dolphins Age and Life Cycle

Dolphinaris brings you all you need to know about dolphins’ age and dolphins’ life cycle. If you want to learn about other subjects, we encourage you to read other sections of Dolphinaris encyclopedia.

Longevity

Bottlenose dolphins can live to over 30 years of age and some studies have aged individuals at 50 years old when they died.

As a dolphin ages, it periodically produces growth layer groups of dental material. A Dolphin’s age can be estimated by examining a sliced section of a tooth and counting these layers.

Disease and parasitism

As in any animal population, a variety of diseases and parasites can be responsible for dolphin deaths. Dolphins may suffer from viral, bacterial, and fungal infections. During a dolphin’s life cycle, it may develop stomach ulcers, skin diseases, tumors, heart disease, urogenital disorders, and respiratory disorders.

In 1987 and 1988, more than 740 dead bottlenose dolphins washed ashore on the east coast of the United States. Scientists originally believed that the dolphin death were triggered by a naturally occurring "red tide" toxin (originating in small marine organisms called dinoflagellates) combined with bacterial and viral infections. Recent tissue analysis indicated that morbillivirus may have been a major contributing factor in most of the mortalities.

Predators

Certain large shark species are predators of bottlenose dolphins. Dolphin remains are often found in the stomachs of tiger sharks, dusky sharks, and bull sharks. Killer whales may also occasionally prey on bottlenose dolphins, but documented cases are rare.

Human impact

In the recent past, bottlenose dolphins have been taken directly for meat, leather, oil, and meal (for fertilizer and animal feed). Bottlenose dolphins, particularly coastal animals, are also affected by pollution, heavy boat traffic, habitat destruction, and competition with fisheries.

Dolphins are also caught accidentally in fishing gear during commercial fishing operations. Recent conservation efforts have greatly reduced the number of dolphin mortalities. Researchers believe, however, that actual takes may be much larger than reported.