What do Dolphins Eat?

What do dolphins eat?

The food that dolphins eat is different for each species.

While some dolphins eat fishes like herring, cod or mackerel, some others eat squids.

Even more, large dolphins like the killer whales, eat some other marine mammals like seals or sea lions and sometime even turtles.

Usually, the amount of fish that they eat depends on the kind of fish that they hunt. While mackerel or herring have a lot of fat, squid have not much fat, therefore, to get the energy required for their activities, dolphins have to eat more squid than mackerel.

On average, a dolphin with a weigh of 200 Kg. to 250 Kg will eat between 10 Kg to 25 Kg of fish every day.

Usually to hunt fish, some species of dolphins use a method called herding which is performed by a pod of dolphins where some of them surround a school of fish to compress them as much as possible, while some others take turns to dive through the compacted school of fish and feed.

Other usual method is corralling where fish is chased to shallow waters where they cannot escape.

Some species catch larger fish by hitting them with their tails to stun them.

Therefore the question about what do dolphins eat, has to be answered for every species in particular.

In this video you can watch a pod of dolphins working together to feed themselves and using the technique called herding to catch the fish as they surround the school of fish and then some of them take turns to eat.

In the video you can even watch fish jumping out of the water trying to scape and then they are catched as they jump.

Feeding related links in this site:

What Black Dolphins Eat?

The Chilean dolphin, also known as black dolphin is a small dolphin which lives off the coast of Chile and it is the only place in the world where it can be found.

They eat small species of fish, cephalopods and crustaceans.

As they are small, they eat small species of fishes.


What do Bottlenose dolphins eat?

Bottlenose dolphins eat mainly small fish and occasionally squid, crabs, shrimp, among other small animals.

They have teeht but they do not chew their food.

Like many other species bottlenose Dolphins work together to hunt fish more efficiently. Usually a group of dolphins surround the school to keep the fish together and then they take turns to eat.

As you can see in the video above, sometime bottlenose dolphins use their tails to stun fish and then catch them easily.


How Do Dolphins Catch Their Food?
How Do Dolphins Eat?
How Dolphins Get Food?
What Do Pacific White-Sided Dolphins Eat?
What Do Spinner Dolphins Eat?
What Type Of Herring Do Dolphins Prey Upon?





Links to other pages in this site

What Species Are Related To The Bottlenose Dolphin?
How Does A Dolphin Look Like?
What Are The Attraction To Dolphins?
Where Do Pink Dolphins Live?
Why Do Dolphins Jump In The Air?