Fusiform, slender, not robust; back black or brownish black, coloration and markings variable; chest and belly cream to white. Sides distinctly marked with hourglass or crisscross pattern of tan or yellowish tan. Beak well-defined, moderately long, often dark with white tip. 1 or more dark stripes from center of lower jaw to flipper. Dorsal fin nearly triangular to distinctly falcate, usually black with lighter grayish region of varying size near middle, tip pointed. The Saddle-backed Dolphin is also known as the Common Dolphin, Saddleback Porpoise, Crisscross Dolphin, White-bellied Porpoise, Hourglass Dolphin, Short-beaked Common Dolphin, and Saddleback. These animals often travel in huge herds of more than a thousand. They frequently leap clear of the water and ride bow waves of vessels for a long time.
Ten Facts about Saddle-backed Dolphin
- There alternate names are Short-beaked Common Dolphin, Common Dolphin.
- They are mostly founds in Offshore over outer continental shelf, often near ridges. Rarely inshore.
- There range are, In Atlantic from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to N. South America. In Pacific from Victoria, British Columbia, to equator.
- There body ,long up to Body up to 9' long.
- They are Fusiform, slender, not robust; back black or brownish black, coloration and markings variable; chest and belly cream to white.
- These animals often travel in huge herds of more than a thousand.
- The short-beaked saddleback dolphin eats small fish like herring, pilchard, anchovies, nocturnal hake, and sardines.
- It eats as much as 20 pounds of food a day.
- The female gives birth to one baby 10-12 months after mating. The baby dolphin feeds on fish when it is about 6 months old, but it continues to nurse for another year.
- The lifespan of whale is about 35-40 years.
