Ecology Summary - Stenella attenuata

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Ecology of Stenella attenuata

Main Ref.	Tan, J.M.L., 1995
Remarks	Spends the majority of their day nearshore, often between 90 to 300 m (Ref. 122680 but they also frequent oceanic waters (Ref. 801). They move further offshore at night into deeper waters to search for prey (Ref. 122680). Feeds largely on epipelagic fish and squid (Ref. 1394). It associates with parasites such as nematodes, cestodes, trematodes and acanthocephalans and commensals that includes cyamids amphipod, and barnacles (Ref. 85211). Social groups are formed by a range of a few individuals to thousands. It is composed of cow-calf pairs, adults and juveniles and they are grouped together or separately by juveniles or breeding groups. Their school size varies within the day (Ref. 85211).

Main Ref.

Tan, J.M.L., 1995

Remarks

Spends the majority of their day nearshore, often between 90 to 300 m (Ref. 122680 but they also frequent oceanic waters (Ref. 801). They move further offshore at night into deeper waters to search for prey (Ref. 122680). Feeds largely on epipelagic fish and squid (Ref. 1394). It associates with parasites such as nematodes, cestodes, trematodes and acanthocephalans and commensals that includes cyamids amphipod, and barnacles (Ref. 85211). Social groups are formed by a range of a few individuals to thousands. It is composed of cow-calf pairs, adults and juveniles and they are grouped together or separately by juveniles or breeding groups. Their school size varies within the day (Ref. 85211).

Aquatic zones / Water bodies

	Marine - Neritic	Marine - Oceanic	Brackishwater	Freshwater
Marine zones / Brackish and freshwater bodies	supra-littoral zone littoral zone sublittoral zone	epipelagic mesopelagic epipelagic abyssopelagic hadopelagic	estuaries/lagoons/brackish seas mangroves marshes/swamps	rivers/streams lakes/ponds caves exclusively in caves

Highighted items on the list are where Stenella attenuata may be found.

Habitat

Substrate	Pelagic;
Substrate Ref.
Special habitats
Special habitats Ref.

Associations

Ref.	Perrin, W.F., 2001
Associations	parasitism; commensalism;
Associated with	Species has a parasitism with Crassicauda in the abdominal muscle and pterygoid sinuses (eastern Pacific), Monoygyma delphini in mesenteries, Phyllobothrium delphini in blubber, Strobicephalus triangularis in colon, Tetrabothrium forsteri in intestine, Campula rochebruni in stomach and pancreatic ducts, Nasitrema globicephalae and Nasitrema stenosoma in pterygoid air sinuses, Orthosplanchnus in intestines, Zalophotrema pacificum in pancreatic duct, Anisakis alexandri, Anisakis typica, Anisakis simplex and Mastigonema stenellae in forestomach, Halocercus delphini in lungs, and Bulbosoma balanae and Bulbosoma vasculosum in intestines. It also has commensalism with Syncyamus, Conchoderma auritum and Xenobalanus globicipitis.
Association remarks
Parasitism

feeding

Feeding type	mainly animals (troph. 2.8 and up)
Feeding type Ref.	Jefferson, T.A., S. Leatherwood and M.A. Webber, 1993
Feeding habit	hunting macrofauna (predator)
Feeding habit Ref.	Jefferson, T.A., S. Leatherwood and M.A. Webber, 1993

Trophic Level(s)

Estimation method	original sample		unfished population		Remark
Estimation method	Troph	s.e.	Troph	s.e.	Remark
From diet composition	4.50	0.64			Troph of juv./adults.
From individual food items	4.48	0.54			Trophic level estimated from a number of food items using a randomized resampling routine.
Ref.	Wang, M.C., W.A. Walker, K.-T. Shao and L.S. Chou, 2003

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