Steno bredanensis
A small, grayish-black dolphin with the forehead rising gradually
from the beak; 20-27 fairly large teeth in each toothrow,
the crowns of which have many fine, vertical wrinkles (from
which feature the name rough-toothed dolphin is derived);
length of rostrum of skull about three times its width. Total
length, 2-2.5 m; weight, 100-135 kg.
Tropical and warm temperate waters of the world. In the western
North Atlantic they are sparsely distributed from Virginia
to the northeastern coast of South America. Known in Texas
on the basis of two strandings near Galveston.
Little is known about the life history of these dolphins.
They occasionally travel in groups of 50 or more, but smaller
groups are normal. They are probably good echolocators and
are easily trained.
A mass stranding of these dolphins occurred on the upper
Gulf coast of Florida in May, 1961. Sixteen of these dolphins
ran aground in a shallow, marshy area but the cause was never
determined.
Food habits are almost unknown. They are known to eat octopus,
squid, and fish. Nothing is known about their reproductive
habits; in captivity, they have mated with bottlenose dolphins
and produced hybrid offspring.
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