//www.youtube.com/watch?v=enRpGsPullI

The food that dolphins eat is different for each species.
While some dolphins eat fishes like herring, cod or mackerel, some others eat squids or other cephalopods.

Even more, large dolphins like killer whales, eat marine mammals like seals or sea lions and sometimes even turtles.

Usually, the amount of fish that they eat depends on the kind of fish that they hunt. While mackerels or herrings have a lot of fat, squids do not have much fat, therefore, to get the energy required for their activities, dolphins have to eat more of the latter.

On average, a dolphin with a weight of 200 – 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 a cooperative hunting performed by a pod where some of them surround a school of fish to compress them as much as possible, while some others take turns to eat through the compacted school of fish.

Another method is corralling where dolphins take fish to shallow waters where they cannot escape.

Some species catch larger fish by hitting them with their tails to stun them and in the case of killer whales, they

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 learn more about What do dolphins eat.

Dolphins have a social structure which makes them swim and live together in small groups called pods or herds. (Names of animal groups).

The best defense mechanism that dolphins have is their social organization and the strong bonds between them. The primary purpose of pods, composed of about 12 dolphins is the protection of the members.

These groups make sharks, the only predator that dolphins have to face, to avoid approaching the pod.

When threatened or attacked, dolphins use their speed and agility hit predators.

Dolphins use several methods to get their food. Fish and squid are the main sources of food for most dolphin species, and they hunt in group cooperatively to catch them.

One method called herding consist that a group of dolphins encircles a school of fish to gather them as close as possible and after that one or two take turns to swim from the bottom of the school to have the largest amount of fish possible on each pass.

It is important that they go from bottom to top because if they were from side to side, the school of fish would probably disperse.

The second method is called corralling, which is performed taking fish to shallow waters where dolphins can just capture them.

Some species are even more specialized or with unique techniques to catch fish or other particular prey that only they consume, like killer whales hunting seals, for example.