Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Globicephala macrorhynchus)
Image Copyright Cyril Boudon
Observed: Koh Chang, 2010
Observed By: Cyril Boudon
The common bottlenose dolphin is one of the most common worldwide species of dolphin with a habitat covering temperate and tropical oceans worldwide.
Thankfully they aren’t considered a threatened species globally – but they certainly are here in teh gulf of Thailand. Sightings around Koh Chang are very rare (you’ll notice these images date back to 2010).
However dead dolphins often wash up on local beaches. The principal cause of death is drowning when they are caught up in fishing nets and are unable to surface to breathe. there are supposed to be strict fishing restrictions within the waters of the Koh Chang Marine National Park. And outside these waters Thailand faces significant challenges to tackle illegal and unsustainable fishing. Sadly these dolphins are often the victims of these fishing practises.
Which is a shame because they are marvellous creatures; highly intelligent group-dwelling mammals with language and extremely complex social interaction. Their brains are bigger than ours, which explains a lot.
Common Bottlenose Dolphin Wikipedia
Image Copyright Cyril Boudon
Image Copyright Cyril Boudon
Image Copyright Cyril Boudon
Image Copyright Cyril Boudon
Other Koh Chang Mammals
Thanks everyone – the animals just keep on coming. There’s 165 individual animal pages on the site now and maybe another 50-70 waiting for me to get around to putting on. It’ll happen but please bear with me if your beast hasn’t appeared yet – it will! Doing this whole exercise just reinforces what a […]
Right, we’re making good progress! Most of our animal backlog has now been cleared and we now have 82 different Koh Chang animal species on the site. Also, importantly, we’ve added a page with lots of animal identification sites and resources. We particularly need some undersea assistance so all you divers please get snapping and […]
