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STRIPED DOLPHIN
Stenella coeruleoalba (Meyen 1833)

Order Cetacea : Family Delphinidae

DESCRIPTION. A slender dolphin that reaches lengths of about 2.4 m and averages 100 kg in weight. Maximum size approximately 3 m in length and 129 kg in weight. Strikingly colored in shades of gray or brown; dark dorsally fading to lighter sides and white ventrally with black stripes extending from the eye to the anus and from the eye to the flipper. Dorsal fin tall, beak relatively short and uniformly dark. There are 43–50 teeth in each side of both jaws, and the average total is 200 teeth. Only S. longirostris has more average total teeth (224).

Stenella coeruleoalba

DISTRIBUTION. Striped dolphins are found in tropical and temperate waters worldwide. Although they are occasionally seen in the western Gulf of Mexico near Texas, these dolphins are better known from waters around Florida.

SUBSPECIES. Monotypic species.

HABITS. Striped dolphins may be observed in herds of several hundred to several thousand, with such groups usually segregated by sex and age. In the Gulf of Mexico, group size ranges from 1 to 130 and averages 16 dolphins per group. They are usually found in deep, offshore waters where they feed on small pelagic fish, squid, and shrimp.
Adult females bear young once every 3 years, and the gestation period is 12 months. Calves are approximately 1 m long at birth. In the Gulf of Mexico, calves have been seen in June, August, October, and February, indicating that the breeding season is not sharply defined. Males reach maturity at about 9 years of age and females at 7 years.

POPULATION STATUS. Uncommon; strandings and observations. This deepwater species is regularly sighted in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and around southern Florida but only occasionally in other areas of the Gulf. The striped dolphin seems to have an affinity to waters deeper than 200 m (656 ft.). The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates striped dolphin abundance at about 5,000 animals in the northern waters of the Gulf. There appears to be a concentration of striped dolphins in the eastern part of the GulfCet study area, near and over the De Soto Canyon region just east of the Mississippi Delta. In 1994 one stranding was from Jefferson County, Texas, but this dolphin does not inhabit our coastal waters.

CONSERVATION STATUS. This deepwater dolphin does not appear on the list of concerned species published by USFWS or TPWD. The striped dolphin's status with the IUCN is least concern, with no evidence of a major global decline that would warrant listing as threatened.

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From The Mammals of Texas, Seventh Edition by David J. Schmidly and Robert D. Bradley, copyright © 1994, 2004, 2016.  Courtesy of the University of Texas Press.

Natural Science Research Laboratory