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Category of Organisms
Marine Mammals
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum/Division
Chordata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Cetacea
Family
Delphinidae
Genus
Lagenodelphis
Species
hosei
Binomial Name
Lagenodelphis hosei
Author
Fraser, 1956
Common Name
Fraser's dolphin
Local Name
Sarawak Dolphin
Size Range
Fraser Dolphins' are about 1 m long and 20 kg weight at birth, growing to 2.75 m and 200 kg at adulthood
Environment/Habitat
It is an oceanic species that prefers deep offshore waters, but it can be seen near shore in some areas where deep water approaches the coast (such as the Philippines, Taiwan, and some islands of the Caribbean and the Indo-Malay archipelago) (Perrin et al. 1994).
In the eastern tropical Pacific, it occurs more often in Equatorial - southern subtropical surface water and other waters typified by upwelling and generally more variable conditions (Au and Perryman 1985). Off South Africa, records are associated with the warm Agulhas Current that moves south in the summer (Perrin et al. 1994).
Importance/Value
Resilience
Endemic
No
Found in Marine Park
No
Found in Malaysia
Yes
Distribution
Morphology/Character
Fraser Dolphins' are about 1 m long and 20 kg weight at birth, growing to 2.75 m and 200 kg at adulthood. They have a stocky build, a small fin in relation to the size of the body, conspicously small flippers. The dorsal fin and beak are also insubstantial. The upper side is a grey-blue to grey-brown. A dirty cream coloured line runs along the flanks from the beak, above the eye, to the anus. There is a dark stripe under this line. The belly and throat are usually white, sometimes tinged pink. The lack of a prominent is a distinguishing characteristic of the Dolphin. From a distance however it may be confused with the Striped Dolphin which has a similar coloration and is found in the same areas of ocean.
Biology
The species feeds on pelagic fish, squid and shrimp found some distance below the surface of the water (200–500 metres). Virtually no sunlight penetrates this depth, so feeding is carried out using echolocation alone.
Miscellaneaous
Fraser Dolphins' swim quickly in large tightly-packed groups of about 100 to 1000 in number. Often porpoising, the group chop up the water tremendously. The sight of seeing a large group fleeing from a fishing vessels has been reported as "very dramatic".
Status in IUCN Red List
Least Concern (LC)
Status in CITES Species Database
II
Researcher(s)
Reference(s)
RALF KIEFNER, WHALES & DOLPHINS CETACEAN WORLD GUIDE, PUBLISHED BY IKAN, Page: 239
Other Link(s)
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/11140
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagenodelphis
Collection Record
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