Question 1

True or false: Risso's dolphins exclusively eat fish and rarely consume squid.

Accepted Answer

False. Their diet is primarily squid, including deep-sea species; fish make up a very small portion of their food.

Question 2

True or false: Risso's dolphins are found only in the warm tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Accepted Answer

False. They have a global distribution in temperate and tropical seas, including the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

Question 3

True or false: Risso's dolphins can dive deeper than 1,000 meters to hunt for deep-sea squid.

Accepted Answer

True. They are deep-diving specialists, reaching depths over 1,000 meters to prey on squid like the jumbo squid.

Question 4

True or false: Risso's dolphins are actually a species of porpoise, not a true dolphin.

Accepted Answer

False. They are true dolphins in the family Delphinidae, despite their blunt head and lack of a beak resembling porpoises.

Question 5

True or false: Risso's dolphins are named after a 19th-century French naturalist who first described them.

Accepted Answer

True. Antoine Risso, a French-Italian naturalist, described the species in 1812, leading to its common name.

Question 6

True or false: These dolphins change color from dark gray to almost white as they age.

Accepted Answer

False. They do lighten with age, but they start as dark gray and become pale gray or white, not nearly white overall.

Question 7

True or false: The distinctive scratches on Risso's dolphins are caused by mating disputes, not squid tentacles.

Accepted Answer

True. Those white scars are mostly from social interactions and tooth rakes with other dolphins, not squid attacks.

Question 8

True or false: Risso's dolphins have no teeth in their upper jaw, only in the lower jaw.

Accepted Answer

True. Adults typically have 4 to 14 teeth, all in the lower jaw; upper jaw is toothless, which is rare among dolphins.

Risso's Dolphin Trivia Questions