Animal
Spinner dolphin
Spinner dolphins jump out of the water and spin around in the air. They live in warm seas. They swim together in big groups.
The spinner dolphin is famous for leaping out of the water and spinning around several times before splashing back. These slim, long-beaked dolphins live in warm oceans around the world, rest in calm bays by day and hunt deep-sea fish and squid at night.
Stenella longirostris is a small, slender oceanic dolphin of tropical and warm-temperate waters, known for spinning leaps that may serve in communication. Island populations rest in shallow bays by day and forage offshore at night. It is listed as Least Concern (IUCN, 2018).
Photo: Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the spinner dolphin
The spinner dolphin is small and slim.
It has a long, thin beak. It loves to leap and spin in the air.
The spinner dolphin got its name from its favorite trick: it leaps out of the water and twirls around in the air, several times in one jump, before falling back with a splash.
Spinner dolphins are small for ocean dolphins: about 1.2 to 2.1 meters long and 59 to 77 kilograms. They are slim, with a long, thin beak. In fact, their scientific name, longirostris, means "long beak". Many are dark gray on the back, light gray on the sides and white underneath.
Stenella longirostris is a relatively small, slender oceanic dolphin with thin, curved flippers, a long, narrow rostrum (longirostris, "long beak") and a dorsal fin ranging from slightly curved to erect and triangular. NOAA Fisheries gives adult lengths of about 4 to 7 feet (1.2 to 2.1 meters) and weights of about 130 to 170 pounds (59 to 77 kilograms).
Color varies a lot by region and subspecies. Gray's spinner dolphins, the typical form found in most areas and including Hawaiian spinners, have a three-part pattern: a dark gray back, light gray sides and a white belly. Researchers recognize individuals by the nicks and notches in their dorsal fins.
Quick facts
- Group
- Mammal
- Length
- 1.2 to 2.1 m
- Weight
- 59 to 77 kg
- Lifespan in the wild
- 20 to 25 years
Where it lives
Spinner dolphins live in warm oceans.
In the day they rest in calm bays. At night they swim out to deep water.
Spinner dolphins live in tropical and warm oceans all around the world: the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. Most live where the water is deep.
Around islands such as Hawaiʻi, spinner dolphins spend the day in clear, calm, shallow bays with sandy bottoms. There they rest, play and care for their babies. At night they swim out to deeper water to feed.
Spinner dolphins occur worldwide in tropical and warm-temperate waters, usually over deep water where they likely track prey (NOAA Fisheries). Four subspecies are described, including Gray's spinner dolphin of the tropical Atlantic, Indian and western and central Pacific, and the dwarf spinner dolphin of Southeast Asia to northern Australia.
Island-associated stocks in Hawaiʻi spend the day in clear, calm, shallow bays with sandy bottoms, which presumably let them watch for predators while they rest without echolocating. A separate pelagic Hawaiian stock lives in deeper offshore waters.
Its habitats
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Tropical and warm-temperate waters around the world, mostly over deep water; island populations rest in shallow bays by day.
Places: Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean.
Source: NOAA Fisheries · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in Brazil, Taiwan, United States, Mexico, New Caledonia, Australia, Egypt, France and 65 more places.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
Dinner in the dark
Spinner dolphins eat small fish, shrimp and squid.
They hunt at night. That is when their food swims up from the deep.
Spinner dolphins hunt at night. Their food, small fish, shrimp and squid, spends the day hundreds of meters down in the deep, dark ocean. At night, these animals swim up toward the surface and closer to shore.
The dolphins take advantage of this nightly trip and feed all night long. Many of the fish they eat are lanternfish, small fish that live in the deep sea.
Spinner dolphins feed at night on small fish, shrimp and squid found about 650 to 1,000 feet (200 to 300 meters) below the surface (NOAA Fisheries). Their prey makes a daily vertical and horizontal migration, staying deep by day and rising and moving inshore at night, and the dolphins feed throughout the night as it comes within reach.
NOAA names lanternfish as their main prey. A 2010 study of mesopelagic fish in the North Pacific Central Gyre found that 35 percent, many of them lanternfish, had swallowed plastic, a route by which pollutants may reach spinner dolphins.
Did you know?
Resting spinner dolphins use their eyes, not sound.
When they rest, spinner dolphins stop using echolocation and watch for danger with their eyes.
During rest, spinners rely on vision rather than echolocation, favoring sandy-bottomed bays.
Born to spin
A spinner dolphin is long and thin.
Its tail pushes it out of the water. Then it spins around in the air!
A spinner dolphin's slim, streamlined body, thin flippers and strong tail let it shoot out of the water and twirl like a top.
Why do they spin? Scientists think the leaps are mostly a way to send signals to other dolphins: the splash makes a loud sound underwater. Spinning may also help shake off small fish called remoras that stick to their skin.
A streamlined body, thin recurved flippers and powerful flukes allow spinning leaps; NOAA describes leaps with up to four body revolutions, and elsewhere up to seven spins. Experts think the behavior serves mainly for acoustic signaling or communication, and it may also help remove ectoparasites such as remoras.
Like other dolphins, spinners use sound to communicate, navigate, find prey and detect predators. During rest they stop echolocating and rely on vision, which is why sandy-bottomed resting bays, where predators are easy to see, matter so much.
Growing up
A baby dolphin is called a calf.
It drinks its mother's milk for a long time. It stays close to her.
Spinner dolphins can have babies at any time of year. A mother is pregnant for about 11 months and has one calf, usually about once every three years.
The calf drinks its mother's milk, often for one to two years. Spinner dolphins are grown up at about 7 years old and live about 20 years; some live at least 25.
Spinner dolphins may mate year-round, with several males mating with one female. Gestation lasts about 11 months; calving occurs year-round, generally about once every three years, and lactation often lasts one to two years (NOAA Fisheries).
Sexual maturity comes at about 7 years. Lifespan is about 20 years, with some individuals living at least 25. Like all marine mammals, they reproduce slowly, so populations recover slowly from losses.
A busy day and night
Spinner dolphins live in groups.
In the day they rest close together. At night big groups go out to eat.
Spinner dolphins are very social. At night they join into big schools of hundreds to feed. During the day they split into smaller groups, sometimes of only about a dozen, to rest and socialize.
When they rest, they swim slowly back and forth together in a tight group for about four to five hours. Then they wake up: they swim faster, leap and call, zig-zag in and out of the bay, and finally race out to sea to hunt.
Spinner groups follow a fission-fusion pattern: they fuse into schools of hundreds to feed at night and split into smaller groups, sometimes about a dozen, to rest and socialize by day (NOAA Fisheries). Resting groups move slowly as a single tight unit for about four to five hours a day.
At the end of rest, activity rises abruptly: faster swimming, more leaps and calls, and shorter dives. A "zig-zag" swimming pattern described in 1994, with vocal activity rising and falling in step, may help the group coordinate its move offshore to forage, sometimes alongside bottlenose or spotted dolphins.
Did you know?
A spinner dolphin can spin around many times in one jump.
One spinning leap can include several full turns in the air.
NOAA describes spinning leaps of up to four body revolutions, and elsewhere up to seven spins.
Let them rest
Spinner dolphins need quiet time to rest.
People should watch them from far away. Plastic in the sea can hurt them too.
Spinner dolphins are listed as Least Concern. But in places like Hawaiʻi, so many boats and swimmers have crowded around resting dolphins that it can keep them from getting the rest they need before a night of hunting. Now, in Hawaiʻi, it is against the law to swim with them or go within about 45 meters of them close to shore.
In some places, fishers have set nets around dolphin groups to catch the tuna swimming below, and dolphins got trapped. Plastic, pollution and underwater noise are other dangers.
The IUCN assessed Stenella longirostris as Least Concern in 2018. In Hawaiʻi, up to 13 tour boats and more than 60 swimmers have been seen on one group; NOAA now prohibits swimming with, approaching or staying within 50 yards (about 45 meters) of spinner dolphins within 2 nautical miles of the main islands. Disturbance can cost resting dolphins energy, with possible long-term effects on body condition and reproduction.
Tuna gathering beneath dolphin schools led some fisheries to encircle dolphins with nets, trapping them; U.S. law now tracks tuna imports for dolphin safety. Marine debris, plastic-carried pollutants and underwater noise are further concerns.
IUCN Red List
How is the spinner dolphin doing in the wild?
- Least Concern (this animal)
- Near Threatened
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Least Concern
Not at risk of disappearing from the wild right now.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2
Amazing facts
-
A spinner dolphin can spin around many times in one jump.
One spinning leap can include several full turns in the air.
NOAA describes spinning leaps of up to four body revolutions, and elsewhere up to seven spins.
-
Spinner dolphins eat their dinner at night.
Spinner dolphins feed all night, when deep-sea fish and squid rise toward the surface.
Foraging is nocturnal, timed to the vertical migration of mesopelagic prey.
-
Scientists can tell dolphins apart by their fins.
Each spinner dolphin's back fin has its own nicks and notches, so scientists can recognize individuals from photos.
Photo-identification matches dorsal fin shape, nicks and notches to a catalog of known individuals.
-
Resting spinner dolphins use their eyes, not sound.
When they rest, spinner dolphins stop using echolocation and watch for danger with their eyes.
During rest, spinners rely on vision rather than echolocation, favoring sandy-bottomed bays.
Words to know
- pod
- a group of dolphins or whales that swim together
- echolocation
- finding things by making sounds and listening for the echoes
- beak
- the long, narrow snout of a dolphin
- nocturnal
- active at night
- remora
- a fish that sticks to larger sea animals with a sucker on its head
Discovery challenge
-
How did spinner dolphins get their name?
Why are they called spinner dolphins?
Which behavior gave the spinner dolphin its common name?
- They spin in the air when they leap
- They spin around on the sand
- They spin webs
Show the answer
They spin in the air when they leap
They jump up and spin around in the air.
They leap out of the water and twirl around several times.
Spinning leaps, thought to serve mainly as acoustic signals.
-
When do spinner dolphins eat?
At what time do spinner dolphins hunt?
When do spinner dolphins forage, and why?
- At night
- At noon
- Only in winter
Show the answer
At night
They hunt at night.
At night, when their food swims up from the deep.
At night, when mesopelagic prey migrates up and inshore.
-
Where do spinner dolphins rest in the day?
Where do island spinner dolphins spend the day?
Which habitat do island-associated spinner dolphins use by day?
- In calm, shallow bays
- On the beach
- In rivers
Show the answer
In calm, shallow bays
They rest in calm bays with clear water.
In clear, calm, shallow bays with sandy bottoms.
Clear, calm, shallow, sandy-bottomed bays where predators are easy to see.
-
What does "longirostris" mean?
What does the spinner dolphin's scientific name, longirostris, mean?
To which feature does the species name longirostris refer?
- Long beak
- Fast swimmer
- Blue back
Show the answer
Long beak
It means long beak.
Long beak: spinners have long, thin beaks.
The long, slender rostrum.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Describe the spinner dolphin's daily rhythm of resting by day and hunting at night.
- Explain why spinner dolphins leap and spin.
- Locate the tropical and warm oceans where spinner dolphins live.
- Discuss how people can watch wild dolphins without disturbing them.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might it matter if a dolphin cannot rest during the day?
- How could plastic eaten by a small fish end up inside a dolphin?
- What rules would you make for people who want to watch dolphins?
Try at home or in class
- Lie on the floor and mark 2 meters with tape: is a spinner dolphin longer or shorter than you?
- Make a dorsal fin ID catalog: cut paper fins with different nicks and notches and try to match a mystery fin to the catalog.
Key vocabulary: pod, echolocation, beak, nocturnal, remora
Where these facts come from
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- Spinner dolphin , NOAA Fisheries
- Stenella longirostris: IUCN Red List global assessment record (Braulik & Reeves 2018), IUCN checklist on GBIF , GBIF
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.