What food does a bottlenose dolphin need?

Answer 1

What do Dolphins Eat?Sat, 2006-01-21 11:01 - Milli

Dolphins eat a variety of different foods. Some of them eat fish, such as mackerel, herring and cod, while others eat squid. Large dolphins, such as Orcas may eat other marine mammals, such as sea lions or sea turtles. How much a dolphin eats depends alot on what type of fish or ssquid they eat. Some fish, such as mackerel or herring, have alot of fat in them. This means that a Dolphin will get alot of energy from eating these fish. However, squid does not have much fat, so a Dolphin has to eat more squid to get the same kind of energy it would get from fish. On average, however, a 250 kg dolphin will typically eat between 10 kg and 22.5 kg of fish every day.

Dolphins hunt using a couple of different methods. Some types of Dolphins will work together to surround a school of fish, and then take turns swimming through, while eating all the fish they can. This is called herding.

Other types of dolphins strike fish with their tails, in order to stun the fish, so they can eat it. This is called whacking.

Sometimes, a dolphin will send a very loud CLICK! throught the water at the fish. The loud noise will shock the fish, and leave it in a stupor. This is called stunning.

Dolphins will sometimes herd a school of fish into shallow water, to make it hard for the fish to escape. This is called coralling.

Lastly, some dolphins will pick up a sponge, and use it to push through the mud on the bottom of shallow parts of the ocean, looking for food. This is called foraging.