Male bottlenose dolphins reach maturity at the age of 11 years whereas female bottlenose dolphins are five to seven years old when they do. The females give birth every 2 or 3 years. In captivity, they have bred with several other species, including Risso's dolphin, false killer whales and rough-toothed dolphins. The main one however, just as in the wild, is the Risso's dolphin.
In the wild adult dolphins face relatively few natural enemies. Some sharks eat them, like tiger sharks, dusty sharks and bull sharks, while even more deadly predators are other species of dolphins, such as orcas and false killer whales. Both of these will eat almost all dolphins including bottlenose, common, striped and spinner etc.
Human activity does, however, have an impact on their numbers. Pair trawling off Devon, for example, has killed hundreds of dolphins and should be stopped. Other commercial methods that have caused problems in the past include drift-netting and gillnets.
You can find bottlenose dolphins inhabiting warm seas and some temperate seas worldwide. You can find lots of them in North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Africa, Europe, Asia and Antarctica.
Bottlenose dolphins are in little danger worldwide as their numbers are abundant and they have a maximum life span of 25 years. Local stocks, however, may be significantly reduced by pair trawling or other environmentally unfriendly, destructive methods of fishing.
The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale. It is one of 76 cetacean species, all of which are marine mammals.
