A group of dolphins is called a pod.
A dolphin pod consists a group of dolphins that have bonded together either because of biological reasons such as a mother bearing offspring and raising her child or a species such as the killer whale that considers family an integral part of its life, or through friendships developed between two or more dolphins.
The purpose of a pod is to provide dolphins with a society in which the can communicate with one another, mate, find food and maximize their survival by outnumbering potential predators.
Most pods can contain anywhere from 2 – 30 dolphins depending on the species and the situation, however there are occasions where pods may grow even larger in size reaching 100 or more dolphins.
In some instances numerous dolphin pods may gather together for an activity or event which can further increase the overall pod up to several thousand dolphins.
Both the size of a single pod and group can vary greatly based on the dolphins species, population size, endangered status, habitat and social structure.
A couple of events in which dolphins may be seen gathered together in large numbers is during times of mating or when searching for prey in areas that are abundant in a particular type of food.
The dolphins will gather together to mate with each other or hunt for food and once they finish participating in the activity the dolphins will return to back to their smaller pods with their family and/or friends until they meet up with other dolphins for the next gathering.
In terms of smaller dolphin pods most of these pods consist of a couple such as mother and her child or two male dolphins that have bonded together.
Other small pods may consists of several female dolphins that have bonded together in order to socialize and provide better protection for their young.
In larger pods as many as four generations of family members can be seen traveling together.
As stated earlier how pods form and how many dolphins coordinate in a pod is largely dependent on the species and their social structure.
Dolphins are social marine mammals that love to interact with one another, swim together and hunt for food as a team, however pods also play a very important role in protecting dolphins, especially smaller species of dolphin that are at a greater risk of being attacked.
Some dolphins will form large pods in order to better protect themselves from predators such as sharks and killer whale.
By forming large pods they can either deter predators or better defend themselves by fighting together.
Larger pods also decrease the likelihood that an individual dolphin will be successfully attacked by a predator because it’s harder to pick out an individual in a large group.
Aside from forming pods or groups to protect themselves some dolphin species may also migrate to or live in coastal waters or rivers where there are less potential threats from predators.
Common reasons dolphins form a pod
- Social interaction (Dolphins are extremely social and family oriented)
- To hunt and capture pray together (Dolphins often work as a team to capture large pools of fish)
- Mating (While dolphins prefer to mate during the warmer summer months they can be found mating throughout the year)
- Protection (Larger pods allow dolphins to deter predators and create a better defense when attacked)