What is a dolphins life span?
Bottlenose dolphin survival rates for the Sarasota population (the only one studied in enough detail) is 0.961. This means that at least in the Sarasota Bay (and also in captivity) the life expectancy (the average age they can be expected to reach) is about 25 years. The maximum age (which only a few will reach) is more than 40 years. Survival rates in other populations may be different (the Indian River population in Eastern Florida has an estimated survival rate of about 0.92 which means a life expectancy of about 12 years).
