Bottlenose dolphin

The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus, Montagu 1821) is the famous dolphin flipper of the popular TV series.

There are two main ecotypes of this species, a coastal and pelagic one. The pelagic ecotype is more permanent than the coast that can perform migrations. Seeing them in the sea is a show, because being a very social species , often perform evolutions details such as: leaping – jump completely out of the water; tailspinning – “walk” backwards on the water using its tail as a pivot; tailslapping – slam the tail fin on the water surface; bow – vertical jump completely out of the water; bowriding – swimming on the waves left by the bow of the boat, breaching – make the ” dips ” out of the water.

Almost always the most numerous groups are made up of females and their young, so you have to approach them with caution, while males are more solitary and come closer to rare occasions.

Bottlenose dolphins, as well as almost all cetaceans, have a highly developed sense of hearing and emit sounds for Echolocation prey or communicate, the Click, consisting of a series of high-frequency sounds they use them for Echolocation, the Whistles ( Whistles ) and crunches ( Barks ), like the barking of dogs to communicate.

In Lampedusa are easy to spot, often follow the wakes of boats species and for obvious reasons, those fisheries. Already a couple of miles to the south or south-west from the port, if you see a boat engaged in fishing, surely there will be nearby too, bottlenose dolphins.