Bottlenose dolphins are present in most oceans and seas of the world and adapt quickly to several types of habitat.

Their thermoregulation capacity allows them to live in waters ranging from 10 to 32 degrees Celsius, which includes temperate, tropical and subtropical areas of the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea between Europe and Asia. The regions that avoid are the polar zones, but some individuals move through the north of Europe, whose waters have low temperatures.

In the Pacific, their distribution range is from northern Japan to Australia and from southern California to Chile in the eastern Pacific Ocean including all the vast area in the middle.

In the Atlantic ocean, they dwell from Nova Scotia to Patagonia in the West and from Norway to South Africa in the East including all the eastern coast of the United States, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Bottlenose dolphin habitat includes bays, open waters, coastal areas, lagoons, estuaries, tidal areas and shallow areas. They even venture occasionally into some rivers.

The other bottlenose species, the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, is also distributed in tropical and subtropical areas in specific regions of the ocean. This dolphin inhabits from western South Africa to Japan, including eastern and western Australia and places such as the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, Solomon Islands and the Indo-Malay archipelago.

The Indo-Pacific dolphin lives near the coasts of continental shelves, at depths of less than 300 meters and around oceanic islands. It frequently visits estuaries and coral reefs where fish banks thrive, and a significant amount of cephalopods live. Therefore it tolerates salt water and brackish waters.

What does this have to do with the dolphins in the wild? Well, thinking that dolphins are non-human people means to consider them beings with rights protected by the laws in a similar way to humans, that is, they must be treated as equals and not as inferiors, which questions their capture and slaughter, as it should be considered murder. In this way, the captivity of dolphins ideally would be reduced.

Ethics as a philosophy prizes the right of people’s freedom and this should be the same in the Animal Kingdom, but it has not been so, and many dolphins have spent their lives, sometimes their whole, living in harsh conditions and without the possibility to experience the freedom of their species.

Life in captivity is not as fun as it seems in dolphinariums.

While even the best aquariums restrain freedom, we have to be aware that not all places that keep dolphins have the best conditions for them. In general, life in captivity is not as fun as it seems in top notch dolphinariums. In fact, there are some differences between dolphins living in those facilities and dolphins in the wild. These discrepancies seem to be always better for free dolphins which make us think that all animals are born free, and although humans use them for various purposes, usually with an ulterior economic end, life in the wild is ideal for them because:

To start with the most evident, free dolphins have hundreds of miles to swim in the ocean, explore and live for a long time. Captive dolphins have ponds or water bodies of several meters, which they can not leave unless their holders decide otherwise, very much like a prison. What about those dolphins that instinctively perform migrations?

Free dolphins born, grow, reproduce and die according to their nature and instincts. Captive dolphins are forced to do several things, for example, they may be induced to mate, to consume a certain food or behave in a particular way.

Free Dolphins retain their physical characteristics unless they are injured, but in captivity, they exhibit an atrophied dorsal fin, that is, it bends downward, perhaps because they spend only 20 percent of their time underwater compared to the 80 percent of the time that free individuals spend.

Normally dolphins have a relatively long life in their natural habitat, but in captivity, both the longevity and the chances of survival reduce. These cetaceans may die during their capture or their transfer as a result of an inadequate supervision of the transport structures or as a result of accidents. In general, captive dolphins live fewer years than their free counterparts.

Dolphins Swimming in the Ocean.

Although dolphins can resist the transportation, their anatomy is not designed to withstand the weight of their body caused by gravity on land. Internal organs or bones like the rib cage can get damaged by carrying them out of the water.

There is no certainty about the proper treatment of captive dolphins unless specific investigations are performed. Therefore, it all depends on the conscious of the people who capture them. While not all are ruthless, we know the where money is involved, some people sacrifice the security and comfort of the dolphins to get higher profits.

Some people argue that in captivity dolphins are safe from predators such as killer whales and sharks, that they have guaranteed food every day and that they have the medical attention of professional veterinarians in case of injury or illness. However, we must not forget that they are animals perfectly adapted to the aquatic life and all that this entails, like the large space in the ocean, the diversity of food and the chance of socializing.

The social life of dolphins and the tight bonds between them is also a major concern for dolphins in captivity as confined they have no contact with other mates or at most with a few of them also in the same conditions.

Conservationists argue strongly about all this, but the release of the captive dolphins is still unlikely.

Humans are a sociable species, we also depend on relations and connections with others to survive, and we all know that most lonely people is not happy and sometimes they have depression and other consequences related to that loneliness. As we are aware, one of the main characteristics of dolphins is their social behavior, so the answer to this is pretty obvious. Dolphins belong to the wild.

WILD DOLPHINS

While the demand for dolphins increases for attractions like swim with dolphins or Dolphin Assisted Therapy (DAT) programs, more and more dolphins are kept in captivity.

Some scientists claim that dolphin research is progressing in great strides, but critics believe that keeping wild dolphins in captivity is cruel and should be stopped.

When contrasting wild dolphins to dolphins in captivity, there are vast differences in behavior, but the high cost of studying wild dolphins has made that scientific data available comes mainly from those in captivity.

Wild dolphins can travel up to 40 miles every day and are constantly on the move, foraging for food, playing and fighting within their pods. Sometimes they submerge to great depths and are hard to follow.

The need for continuous movement of Wild dolphins is one of the reasons that critics of captivity use as arguments to request the release of these dolphins.

The process to capture wild dolphins has traumatic effects on them. Statistics show that 53% of the dolphins that survive the process will die within the first three months.

DOLPHINS IN CAPTIVITY

Regardless that the dolphins we see in captivity seem to be happy, scientists believe that their boredom eventually leads to their premature deaths. Dolphins in captivity, spend only 20% of their time under the surface contrasting with the dolphins in the wild that can be up to 80%.

Activities like beaching themselves in aquatic shows are against their nature because the dolphins in the wild would never beach themselves. Scientists believe that this is extremely harmful because resting on their bellies over a hard surface, will eventually damage their internal organs.

At least 50% of the dolphins in captivity will die in less than seven years. Chlorine poisoning, diseases, and stress-related illnesses are the main reasons that cause the death of those in captivity.

Sometime during the capture process, dolphins are herded towards the shore, separating those still swimming with their mothers from the pod. They are then trussed in a sling and carried from the water to a transport vehicle. Research proves this procedure is very traumatic to dolphins.

US government researchers have found that mortality rates in bottlenose dolphins rise six-fold immediately after capture.

Experience have shown that Dolphins in captivity do not live more than a few years. However, better caring procedures and advanced veterinary medicine, have helped them to live longer, sometimes as long as the dolphins in the wild. Scientists have not figured out yet why dolphins in captivity live less, as most wild animals in captivity, protected from their natural predators will always outlive their counterparts in their natural environments.

Many animal conservation groups are demanding the release of dolphins in captivity, but while there is profit involved, this will be difficult to achieve.

References

Use of Marine Mammals in Swim-with-the-dolphin Programs (FL,HI): Environmental Impact Statement, Volume 1. 1990.

http://us.whales.org/wdc-in-action/end-captivity

http://us.whales.org/faqs/captivity

Janet Mann. Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales. University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Obviously, the distribution and habitat are different for each dolphin species, but usually, they avoid extreme cold waters, so they are not found in the polar zones.

Dolphins are found living in bodies of water around the world. They inhabit all of the oceans and some important rivers. Most of them live in saltwater, but a few species thrive in freshwater.

The habitat of dolphins varies according to environmental factors and food accessibility. They are smart creatures with the intelligence to modify their habitat when needed for survival.

PARTICULAR DISTRIBUTIONS

For example, the Bottlenose Dolphin dwells in all of the oceans, and they tend to live close to the coastline. Migration is a big part of life for some dolphins. They have to move where there is enough food; This is why some locations where there used to be dolphins either have very few or none anymore. Even changes in water temperatures can be reasons for them no longer to return to locations they once called home. Some successfully migrate hundreds of miles annually.

Open water species tolerate colder temperatures than coastal dolphins.

The Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and their seas host a large number of dolphin species since they prefer tropical, subtropical and warm waters. However, talking about the particular distribution of dolphins means addressing the place where each species live as they differ from each other.

Also, some species are distributed over large areas while others may inhabit a small region. Other species are particularly endemic to a zone, and some may have different populations scattered over an extensive range. Each species is a different case.

Two common dolphins jumping in the Sea of Cortes, Mexico.

The Pacific Ocean is habitat to several species, such as the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), perhaps the best-known dolphin, with a vast territory ranging from Japan to Australia and from the southern United States to Chile and Hawaii. In the Atlantic, the bottlenose dolphin dwells from North America to southern Argentina in the western part of this ocean and from Norway all the way down to the coasts of South Africa in the east. This species is also common in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Some dolphins out there live in much smaller habitats. For example, the Yangtze River Dolphin only dwells in the river of the same name. Hector’s Dolphins inhabit the coastal areas of New Zealand. They tend to be scattered there around the South Island.

The Short-beaked Common Dolphin (Delphinus Delphis) mainly inhabits the Mediterranean Sea and the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. The Chinese white dolphin (Sousa chinensis) only dwells in the waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Additionally, five river species exist that only inhabit the freshwaters of the Amazon, Ganges, Yangtze, Rio de la Plata and Indus rivers respectively.

GENERAL AND SPECIFIC HABITATS

The habitats of dolphins are also very diverse. They can be found in ports, bays, gulfs and estuaries and frequently in the shallow waters of the continental shelves. Previously it was believed that dolphins could not dive more than 200 meters deep, but apparently, some species have the feasibility of diving about 300 meters deep, a conclusion reached by finding remains of benthic fish in the stomachs of some specimens.

Some individuals prefer living in the open ocean while others fancy the conditions near the coasts. The Hector’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus hectori), for example, can live only in shallow waters near the coastline. In contrast, the Spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) lives in the pelagic zone of high seas.

Open ocean dolphins seem to tolerate cold temperatures better than the coastal species. They rarely get close to the coasts. In contrast, coastal dolphins prefer warm and tropical waters, and their small body allows them to enter narrow and shallow places such as estuaries and river channels.

One thing is for sure: Dolphins visit areas with abundant prey within their habitats. Whether or not it is shallow water, most of these cetaceans prefer the pelagic area of ​​the sea where is easier finding and catching food. If the food supply decreases, dolphins tend to migrate to areas where there is no shortage, so their eating habits also change.

Since most species do not tolerate frozen waters they can migrate in search of warmer places during the seasons when temperatures drop, and vice versa. Dolphins also consider the migration patterns of their usual prey and their breeding habits to move from one site to another and perform seasonal migrations.

River Dolphins, for their part, inhabit the river basins of their distribution areas, along with the banks of the main channels and smaller channels. Some river dolphins venture to explore the forests when the rainy season floods them.

If you want to know the distribution and habitat of a particular species, do not hesitate to visit the Species section.

References

bioexpedition.com/dolphin-habitat-and-distribution/

https://seaworld.org/en/animal-info/animal-infobooks/bottlenose-dolphins/habitat-and-distribution/

http://www.scielo.cl/pdf/revbiolmar/v36n1/art11.pdf

http://www.iucnredlist.org/search

Sam H. Ridgway, Richard John Harrison. Handbook of Marine Mammals: The Second Book of Dolphins and the Porpoises, Volumen 6. 1998.

The pink river dolphin is a freshwater dolphin who lives in the Amazon and Orinoco rivers in South America. They are also known as Boto, and their scientific name is Inia geoffrensis. Although usually, they are pink, sometimes they are also gray, white or a mix of these colors. The pink dolphin of Hong Kong (Sousa chinensis) is another species with pink color mixed with gray, but they are entirely different species that live in far away from each other.

One of the theories that explain the reason for its unusual coloration is related to its social behavior. Some think that fights between some specimens, especially males, leave visible scars on their skin that turn pink with the passage of time.

Other researchers suggest that it is a natural way to camouflage themselves against predators, as reddish coloration is very common in the waters of their aquatic environment.

Bottlenose dolphins dwell in all the oceans around the globe. They can live from temperate waters to tropical waters of both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.

Their limits are the cold temperatures of the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans where the water temperature is freezing.

Below there is a map that shows the vast region inhabited by Bottlenose dolphins.

This map shows the extense region of the Oceans where the bottlenose dolphins live

The Amazon River dolphin, also known as Boto (Inia geoffrensis), is a freshwater dolphin that lives in the Amazon River and the Orinoco River systems which include several countries in South America.

These dolphins are Pink Dolphins move around these rivers to every place where they can reach without going to the ocean.

Other pink dolphins such as the Chinese white dolphin (Sousa chinensis) live in an area that covers the east and west coasts of northern Australia, eastern China, the Indo-Malayan archipelago, and the Bay of Bengal in the east of India.

The Chinese white dolphin inhabits the Indian and Pacific oceans from the southern coast of China in the east to eastern coast of Australia, including Indochina and part of the Indian Ocean.

The countries besides China, where it dwells are Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Australia, and Papua New Guinea.

Bottlenose dolphins do not have a migration pattern defined which would take them from one place to another every year during the winter.

However, during winter populations of bottlenose dolphins living in North areas could look for southern temperate waters.

Bottlenose dolphins are one the dolphin species widely distributed around the global oceans.

They live in the temperate and tropical waters of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and every sea that has this kind of waters.

They are not present in the Arctic or Antarctic oceans where the water temperatures are extremely low.

Yangtze river dolphins, also known as Baiji are freshwater dolphins who lived in the Yangtze River in China.

Due to excessive fishing and industrialization around the Yangtze River, this species of dolphin is critically endangered, and even some affirm that it is already extinct.

Baiji used to live along 1000 miles of the middle and lower parts of the Yangtze River from the mouth of the river near Shangai to Yichang in the west.