---
title: Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops aduncus)
scientific_name: Tursiops aduncus
common_name: Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin
taxon: Dolphins
conservation_status: NT - Near Threatened
published: 2024-11-02T09:24:38.317Z
updated: 2026-08-14T11:57:50.709Z
tags: Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops aduncus, Dolphins, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/mammals/dolphins/indo-pacific-bottlenose-dolphin
---

# Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin (*Tursiops aduncus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Dolphins (*Delphinidae*)
- **Size:** up to 2.7 m
- **Weight:** 230 Kg
- **Depth:** 0-100 m
- **Diet:** Piscivore
- **Activity:** Cathemeral
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Shallow coastal water, reef flats and lagoons
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer, Gonochoric
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** NT - Near Threatened

## How to recognise it

- smaller and slimmer than the Common Bottlenose, with a longer, more slender beak
- adults develop dark spots on a pale belly, which truncatus never does
- stays close inshore over reef and sand rather than in open water
- length up to 2.7 m

The bottlenose of the reef itself: smaller than its offshore relative at 2.7 m (9 ft), slimmer, with a longer and finer beak. The reliable separation is the belly - adults of this species are speckled with dark spots underneath, and the Common Bottlenose never is.

It is a coastal animal with a small home range and a long memory of it. Groups work the same stretch of reef and sand for years, which makes them familiar to local guides as individuals, and also makes them exposed: everything that happens to that reef happens to them.

Hunting is done in the shallows, often by driving fish against a coral edge, and calves learn the local method rather than a species-wide one. Females stay in the group they were born into; males pair up and roam between groups, which is a social structure closer to a fission-fusion society than a stable pod.

A note on names: the two bottlenoses were treated as one species until 1998, which is why older references from this coast do not distinguish them, and why any old record simply saying "bottlenose" cannot be assigned to either.

**We do not support keeping dolphins in captivity.** These are animals that travel tens of kilometers a day, hunt in coordinated groups, hold societies with their own dialects, and stay with their families for life. A show pool reproduces none of it, and the noise, the chlorine and the boredom are not details - they are what kills them early. Many of the animals performing today were taken from the sea, and the drive hunts that supply them continue because the tickets sell. So do not buy one. No dolphinarium, swim-with-dolphins program or hotel show survives without paying visitors, and every one of them ends the day people stop coming.

## Also known as

- **English:** Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, Indian Ocean Bottlenose Dolphin, southern bottlenose dolphin
- **Arabic:** دلفين المحيط الهندي قاروري الأنف, دلفين الهادي الهندي قاروري الأنف, دلفين قاروري الأنف الهادي الهندي
- **Hebrew:** דולפינן אנקולי
- **French:** grand dauphin de l'ocean Indien, Grand dauphin de l'océan Indien, tursiops abusalam
- **Italian:** Tursiope indopacifico
- **German:** Indopazifischer Großer Tümmler, Indopazifik-Tiummler
- **Spanish:** delfín mular del Oceano Indico, Delfin mular del océano índico, Delfin Mular del Oceano Indico
- **Greek:** Ρινοδέλφινο του Ινδοειρηνικού
- **Turkish:** Hint-Pasifik şişe burunlu yunusu
- **Portuguese:** Roaz-do-índico
- **Dutch:** Indische tuimelaar, Langbektuimelaar
- **Polish:** Butlonos indyjski
- **Czech:** delfín Ehrenbergův
- **Japanese:** Indo-shina bando -iruka, ミナミハンドウイルカ, ミナミバンドウイルカ
- **Chinese:** 印太瓶鼻海豚, 印度太平洋瓶鼻海豚, 印度洋瓶鼻海豚
- **Russian:** Индийская афалина
- **AF:** Indiese Oseaan stompneusdolfyn, Indiese Oseaan-stompneusdolfyn, Tuimelaardolfyn
- **DA:** Indopacifisk øresvin
- **HU:** indiai-óceáni palackorrú delfin
- **ID:** Lumba-Lumba Hidung Botol Indo-Pasifik
- **KO:** 남방큰돌고래
- **NO:** Indisk Tumler, Indiatumler
- **SND:** hum
- **TEL:** gadamu
- **TH:** plaloma pak khuad, plaloma huakhuadbaksan, โลมาปากขวด

## Scientific synonyms

- *Delphinus aduncus* Ehrenberg, 1832

## Range

South Pacific Ocean, Western Indian Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/mammals/dolphins/indo-pacific-bottlenose-dolphin)*
*Updated: August 14, 2026*