Dolphin

"Social creatures of habit, dolphins can be found swimming together through the ocean in large groups. As they spot the player, they will try to interact with them, showing them just how highly intelligent and curious they are. Above all else – they are extremely playful!"

- Per Landin

Dolphins are neutral mobs that live in any non-frozen ocean.

Spawning
Dolphins are found in groups of 3-5 in all ocean biomes, except frozen oceans. Dolphins continuously spawn as long as their spawn requirements are met, similar to squid. This is different from cows, for example, which spawn upon map generation and then only rarely after that.

10% of dolphins spawn as babies.

Drops
When killed, dolphins drop 0–1 ( if on fire). The maximum amount is increased by 1 per level of Looting, for a maximum of 0-4 with Looting III.

Behavior
Dolphins normally swim in groups, occasionally leaping out of the water to get air. They're also able to jump from one body of water to another. They also chase after players in boats.

Players who swim within 9 blocks of a dolphin receive Dolphin's Grace for 5 seconds. In Bedrock Edition and Legacy Console Edition, the player simply gets a speed boost without a status effect.

Dolphins are lured by dropped items that are inside nearby water blocks, knocking them around and chasing them. If the dolphin can not find a path to a dropped item, the dolphin may stay underwater to the point of drowning. If the dolphin is in, or on, a waterlogged bottom slab or chest with an air block above, the dolphin is prevented from drowning.

If the player or other mob hits a dolphin, the whole pod retaliates, attacking as a group similar to wolves and zombie pigmen.

Feeding dolphins raw cod or raw salmon improves their "trust" and interactions with the player, depending on the amount of fish fed.

When dolphins are fed raw cod or raw salmon, they swim to the nearest shipwreck or ocean ruins. Because they are locating the chest in the structures rather than the structures themselves, breaking the chests causes the dolphin to locate a new structure with intact chests. Dolphins also avoid guardians and elder guardians.

Weaknesses
If a dolphin leaves the water, it starts taking suffocation damage after about two minutes, and eventually dies like squid. A dolphin on land actively seeks out a body of water.

They cannot survive without getting air every once in a while, so if they stay submerged for about four minutes they begin drowning. The water breathing effect prevents them from drowning.

Dolphins cannot ride boats, similarly to squids and all types of fish.

Dolphins can be towed by a lead.

Because the dolphin is an aquatic mob, they are affected by the Impaling enchantment.

Data values
Dolphins have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob.

Trivia

 * To create the sounds that the dolphins make in the game, Mojang's lead sound designer, Samuel Åberg, went to Kolmården Wildlife Park to record real bottlenose dolphins.
 * If a dolphin is beached on land and in a hostile state, it moves slowly towards its target.
 * Dolphins originally had a separate head and body when shown in a clip at MINECON 2017.
 * It is also shown in official artwork for Java Edition 1.13.