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The animal on the cover of Kubernetes: Up and Running is an Atlantic white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus acutus). As its name suggests, the white-sided dolphin has light patches on its sides and a light gray strip that runs above the eye to below the dorsal fin. It is among the largest species of oceanic dolphins, and ranges throughout the north Atlantic Ocean. It prefers open water, so it is not often seen from the shore, but will readily approach boats and perform various acrobatic feats.

White-sided dolphins are social animals commonly found in large groups (known as pods) of about 60 individuals, though the size will vary depending on location and the availability of food. Dolphins often work as a team to harvest schools of fish, but they also hunt individually. They primarily search for prey using echolocation, which is similar to sonar. The bulk of this marine mammal’s diet consists of herring, mackerel, and squid.

The average lifespan of the white-sided dolphin is between 22–27 years. Females only mate every 2–3 years, and the gestation period is 11 months. Calves are typically born in June or July, and are weaned after 18 months. Dolphins have very great intelligence and display complex social behaviors like grieving, cooperation, and problem-solving, due to their high brain-to-body ratio (the highest among aquatic mammals).

Many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world. To learn more about how you can help, go to animals.oreilly.com.

The cover image is from British Quadrupeds. The cover fonts are URW Typewriter and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.