A compact, sharply patterned dolphin that looks like a miniature orca sketched in simple black, white, and grey. Their body are chunky and torpedo-shaped, with a blunt, rounded head instead of a long beak. The colour pattern is eye-catching: a dark charcoal back and dorsal fin, a pale grey “cape” over the shoulders, and clean white patches on the belly and flanks. From above, they’re dark and hard to spot against the sea; from below, their pale underside helps them blend into bright surface light.

These dolphins have a very restricted address on the planet. They live only in the cool, nutrient-rich waters of the Benguela Current off southwestern Africa, along the coasts of western South Africa, Namibia and southern Angola. Instead of roaming vast oceans, they tend to stick close to the continental shelf, especially near surf zones, rocky points and sandy bays. In many places, they show a daily rhythm: mornings spent near the coast, milling, resting and socialising in small groups, then moving further offshore in the afternoon to feed.

Their menu is built around small fish and cephalopods that thrive in cold upwelling water, including juvenile hake, gobies and squid. They hunt using echolocation, firing out rapid bursts of very high-frequency clicks and listening for the echoes bouncing off prey. Unusually, those clicks are centred at frequencies far above what killer whales hear best, which may help Heaviside’s dolphins stay “acoustically hidden” from one of their main predators.

They are anything but quiet at the surface, though. Heaviside’s dolphins are famous for their acrobatics around boats and in breaking surf. They love to ride the pressure wave at the bow of moving vessels, sometimes launching in near-vertical leaps and slicing back into the sea with barely a splash.

Distribution

Country

Population est.

Status

Year

Comments

Atlantic Ocean

2017

Angola

2017

Namibia

2017

South Africa

2017