Wildlife: A pod of Dolphins swim in the Pacific Ocean of Guatemala

A pod of Bottlenose Dolphins Tursiops truncatus is seen swimming off the coasts of Escuintla, Guatemala. The common bottlenose dolphin, is the most well-known species from the family Delphinidae. They are the most familiar due to the wide exposure they receive in captivity in marine parks and in movies and television. This dolphin is the largest species of the beaked dolphins. They inhabit temperate and tropical oceans throughout the world, and are absent only from polar waters. The common bottlenose dolphin is grey in color and may be between 6.6 and 13.1 feet long. Males are generally larger and heavier than females. Like all whales and dolphins, though, the snout is not a functional nose; the nose has instead evolved into the blowhole on the top of their heads. Their necks are more flexible than other dolphins` due to five of their seven vertebrae not being fused together as is seen in other dolphin species. They live in groups called pods that typically number about 15 individuals, but group size varies from pairs of dolphins to over 100 or even occasionally over 1000 animals for short periods of time. Their diets consist mainly of eels, squid, shrimp and a wide variety of fishes. They do not chew their food, instead swallowing it whole. Dolphin groups often work as a team to harvest schools of fish, though they also hunt individually. Dolphins search for prey primarily using echolocation, which is a form of sonar.

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