Population and Distribution
The pantropical spotted dolphin, as its very name implies, is found across all tropical and sub-tropical waters around the world — roughly speaking all oceans and seas between 40° N and 40° S. The total world population is in excess of three million — the second most abundant cetacean after the bottlenose dolphin — of which two million are found in the eastern Pacific. However, this represents a decrease from at least 7 million since the 1950s.
Centres of highest population density are the shallow warmest waters (water temperature in excess of 25 °C). There is also a tendency for groups to concentrate where there is a high temperature gradient.
Read more about this topic: Pantropical Spotted Dolphin
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