Dolphins
On this page you will find some information about these great animals. If you love dolphins as much as I do, this page will interest you!
Dolphin are mammals. They are a type of whale. They live in the water but come up for air. They can stay submerged for up to 15 minutes! Dolphins are located just about every where in the oceans. There are also fresh water dolphins but they are much less common.
They travel in groups called pods. These pods consist of about 15 dolphins. Within the pods dolphins are very social. They help each other out. For example, if a dolphin is sad or lonely, it will give the distress call. One of the other pod members will answer this call and the dolphin feels better. The average length of a dolphin is 12 feet.
Dolphins reproduce sexually. Their offspring are called calves. A female dolphin may give birth up to eight times in her life time. Only one calf can
be born at a time. In the first two weeks of life, the calf doubles it's size drinking the mothers' milk. A baby dolphin will stay with it's mother for
approximately 5 years after birth. He/she will follow her around everywhere! If
it is a male, they will go out to form their own pod.
Isn't it beautiful to see a dolphin jump?
One
species of dolphins is the bottle nosed dolphin
It has a dark gray back, and the rest is light gray. The most beautiful thing I ever saw was a bottle-nosed dolphin leaping through the ocean. I
think they look better in their natural habitat than in a pool. Do you share my opinion?
All dolphins and whales belong to the group Cetacean. All cetaceans are animals that have very well adapted to the water and have lost the ability to come back to land. This group is divided into 3 sub-groups. Dolphins belong to Odontoceti. That is
the group of toothed whales. In this group there are dolphins, killer whales, porpoises, and beluga whales. Cetaceans
supposedly appeared on earth 50 million years ago.
There are only a few types of dolphins that are endangered, not all of
them like some people think. The endangered are the Indus river dolphin, and the Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin.
These two are very rare, but only 2 of the total of 32 species.
The most common are the bottle-nosed, pink, and spotted
Dolphins make interesting noises. There are whistles and sort of barks. Other sounds resemble
crackling. One type of sound they make is called "sonar". Sonar is when their sound travels and bounces back so dolphins know what is ahead. It is like a second pair of eyes.
Man can't hear the sound, only if it is recorded by special equipment.
Dolphins can dive down to 1000 feet
Dolphins are known throughout the world for being beautiful and graceful animals. Scientist agree that the dolphin is the easiest animal to train. Dolphins are the smartest animals after humans. They, unlike humans, are very kind. They have friendly
dispositions. This is why you may see them is shows. Most dolphins seem to like
to do those shows, but only if they have trainers that care. You can see the
difference of a dolphin having fun, and one that doesn't.
Here are some did you know stuff:
Did you know that:
* dolphins have no sense of smell at all?
* Dolphins eat their food 2 meters under water?
* Female dolphins during their "sleep" are laying at the surface with their breathing hole just above water?
* And male dolphins do this just under the surface and have a reflex to breath?? They will come up for air every 5 minutes or so. It is like our reflex to turn in our sleep.
*
The largest male whale is 31 meters long and females can get even bigger?
* The highest weight ever measured is 178.000 kilos is, and it is from a whale.
This picture shows a family of orca's, also known as Killer Whales. You can recognize a male orca from a female because they have a much larger upper fin. I think these animals are really beautiful, and not because of Free Willy! Anyone who has ever seen them will share my opinion.
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Updated
06-02-2000