---
title: Risso's Dolphin (Grampus griseus)
scientific_name: Grampus griseus
common_name: Risso's Dolphin
taxon: Dolphins
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-02T09:25:16.046Z
updated: 2026-08-14T11:57:50.856Z
tags: Risso's Dolphin, Grampus griseus, Dolphins, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/mammals/dolphins/rissos-dolphin
---

# Risso's Dolphin (*Grampus griseus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Dolphins (*Delphinidae*)
- **Size:** up to 4 m
- **Weight:** 300 - 500 Kg
- **Depth:** 0-1000 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Deep water off the shelf edge and steep offshore drop-offs
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer, Gonochoric
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- blunt head with no beak at all and a vertical crease down the front of the melon
- body covered in white scratches, older animals almost white
- tall sickle-shaped dorsal fin, taller than a bottlenose's
- length up to 4 m

A blunt-headed dolphin to 4 m (13 ft) with no beak whatsoever, a vertical crease splitting the front of the head, and a tall sickle fin. What identifies it at any distance is the color: the body is covered in a dense mesh of white scratches, and old animals are almost entirely white with a dark fin.

The scars are its record. Some come from the teeth of other Risso's - the species settles its social business by raking - and some from the hooks and beaks of the squid it eats. They never fade, so the animal accumulates them for life and the palest individual in a group is the oldest.

Squid is nearly the whole diet, and squid means depth and darkness: this is a night hunter that dives to several hundred meters, and its teeth have gone with the diet - only a few peg-like ones remain in the lower jaw, enough to grip something soft.

It is a deep-water animal that comes near shore only where the drop-off does, which in this sea means the offshore reefs and the steep coastal walls. Sightings are uncommon and usually brief.

**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:** gray grampus, grey dolphin, Risso's dolphin
- **Arabic:** دلفين رمادي, دلفين ريسو, غرامبس
- **Hebrew:** גרמפוס אפור, גרמפוס
- **French:** dauphin de Cuvier, dauphin de Risso, marsouin gris
- **Italian:** delfino de Risso, delfino di Risso, grampo
- **German:** gestreifter Delfin, gestreifter Delphin, Rundkopfdelfin
- **Spanish:** calderón gris, Delfín chato, delfín de Risso, delfín gris
- **Greek:** σταχτοδέλφινο (stachtodélfino), stachtodélfino, Σταχτοδέλφινο
- **Turkish:** yuvarlak basli yunus, yuvarlak başlı yunus, boz yunus
- **Portuguese:** golfinho de Risso, golfinho cinzento, Moleiro
- **Dutch:** Grijze dolfijn, dolfijn van Risso, gramper
- **Swedish:** Rissos delfin
- **Polish:** Delfin Risso, Delfin szary, risso szary
- **Czech:** plískavice šedá
- **Japanese:** hana gondo kujira, kamabire sakamata, mazuba iruka
- **Chinese:** 瑞氏海豚, 里氏海豚
- **Ukrainian:** Дельфін сірий, Сірий дельфін
- **Russian:** серый дельфин, seryy delfin
- **AF:** Risso se Dolfyn, Risso-dolfyn
- **CA:** cap d'olla gris, Cap d'olla
- **CYM:** chyw dolffin Risso, Dolffiniaid Risso, dolffin Risso
- **DA:** Rissosdelfin, halvrgindehvaler
- **EU:** Izurde muturmotza, marzupla
- **FI:** Harmaadelfiini, isodelfiini
- **FRY:** Grize dolfyn
- **GL:** Arroaz boto
- **HR:** Glavati dupin
- **ID:** Lumba-lumba Risso, lumba-lumba abu-abu, temu bura
- **IS:** Grámi, Rispuhöfrungur
- **KO:** keunmeori-dolgorae, 큰코돌고래
- **LT:** pilkasis delfinas
- **MLG:** lambondriaka mavomavo, lambondriaka volombatolalaka
- **MLT:** Delfin griú
- **NNO:** arrdelfin
- **NO:** arrdelfin, rissodelfin
- **SL:** okrogloglavi delfin
- **TAM:** panavai meen
- **TH:** โลมาริสโซ

## Scientific synonyms

- *Delphinus (Grampus) griseus* Gray, 1828
- *Delphinus aires* G. Cuvier, 1812
- *Delphinus griseus* G. Cuvier, 1812
- *Delphinus orca* Temminck & Schlegel, 1841
- *Delphinus risso* Risso, 1826
- *Delphinus rissoanus* Desmarest, 1822
- *Delphinus rissoi* Gervais, 1859
- *Globicephalus rissii* Hamilton, 1837
- *Gramphidelphis griseus* Kellogg, 1940
- *Grampidelphis exilis* Iredale & Troughton, 1933
- *Grampidelphis griseus* Iredale & Troughton, 1933
- *Grampidelphis kuzira* Iredale & Troughton, 1933
- *Grampus cuvieri* Gray, 1846
- *Grampus richardsoni* Gray, 1850
- *Grampus rissoanus* Murie, 1871
- *Grampus sakamata* Gray, 1846
- *Grampus sakata* Tomilin, 1957
- *Grampus sowerbianus* Fischer, 1881
- *Grampus stearnsii* Dall, 1873
- *Phocaena griseus* F. Cuvier, 1836
- *Phocaena rissonus* F. Cuvier, 1836

## Range

Comoros, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Greece, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Ireland, Kenya, Madagascar, Mediterranean Sea, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, Pacific Ocean, Red Sea, Seychelles, Southern Ocean, Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean, World Oceans

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