Striped Dolphin: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Sea Mammals · day 6 of 7

Five facts

1. Its look is easy to spot at sea: black bands circle the eyes and run back along the body, and the belly can be blue, white or even pink.
2. Striped dolphins travel in big crowds. A single group can number in the thousands.
3. A real acrobat, it often bursts out of the sea and leaps high above the waves.
4. In the eastern tropical Pacific, people call them "streakers", because they zoom away from boats to avoid being hit.
5. It hunts fish, squid and krill wherever they gather, and can dive as deep as 700 m to reach deep-sea prey.

The quiz

1. What colour can a striped dolphin's underside be?

• Bright yellow
• Green
• Orange with spots
• Blue, white or pink (correct)

Its underside is blue, white or pink.

2. How big can a group of striped dolphins be?

• Never more than 2
• Thousands of dolphins (correct)
• Exactly 5
• About 10 at most

Groups usually reach up to thousands of individuals.

3. What does the striped dolphin often do at the surface?

• Leaps high out of the water (correct)
• Floats asleep for hours
• Blows giant bubble rings
• Rests on sandbanks

It often breaches and jumps far above the surface.

4. Why are they called "streakers" in the eastern tropical Pacific?

• They have glowing stripes
• They ride the bow waves of ships
• They swim fast away from boats (correct)
• They leave trails of bubbles

They rapidly swim away from vessels to avoid collisions.

5. How deep can a striped dolphin dive to hunt?

• 5 m
• 700 m (correct)
• 20 m
• 50 m

It can dive to 700 m to hunt deeper-dwelling prey.

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