Gestation is about 11 months. Birth intervals seem to be around 5 years, and mothers nurse their calves until they become pregnant again. Calves remain with the mother up to eight years, learning social and feeding skills from extended mother-calf family groups, adult and subadult females and calves of both sexes. They are often competitors for food. It is not true that dolphins and sharks do not inhabit the same waters.
Many dolphins carry shark scars that prove otherwise.
Spotted Dolphins learn social skills from siblings, peers and elders. Their role and responsibility in the community changes as they grow up. Dolphins swallow their food whole, sometimes regurgitating parts of it such as fish bones and squid beaks. All information on this site is copyrighted and none of this material, text, audio or photos may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the Human Dolphin Institute. Inc. Web SYtes By Design.