Features of Dolphin:
- Dolphins are marine mammals.
- They are very gentle and friendly creatures.
- Dolphins have a fish-like streamlined body about 2 meters long.
- They have a beak like snout and four limbs modified into paddles.
- The posterior end of their body is expanded into a flattened tail.
- They are not fish but small whales.
- Both dolphins and whales come under the category Cetacea.
- They give birth to live young and they nurse their offspring with milk.
- Dolphin’s bodies are shaped to help them swim easily.
- Their skin is smooth and sensitive, but often bears a number of scars from encounters with other dolphins, sea objects, or boats.
- Blubber is a layer under the dolphin’s skin. It is a fatty substance that stores energy and helps dolphins to stay warm.
- Dolphins hold their breath underwater and at the surface exhale through the blowhole, which shoots a spray of water into the air.
- Then they inhale quickly, submerge again, and swim on.
- The smallest dolphin is the endangered Maui’s dolphin.
- The largest member of the dolphin family is the Orca, commonly known as Killer Whale.
Playful creatures:
- Dolphins are very intelligent and clever sea animals.
- These playful creatures can be taught tricks very easily.
- Dolphin’s behavior is fascinating and can be a lot of fun to watch.
- They can solve problems and play a number of games with a ball or a tube.
- One such game involves blowing tubes of bubbles into the water, then swimming and playing inside the bubbles.
- Dolphins are very playful and the center of attraction.
- Dolphins are kept in zoos and aquariums for entertainment because they are very skilled performers. They can jump out of water up to 5mt.
- It is very delightful to see those performing tricks.
- Dolphins seem to enjoy playing in the waves created by passing boats.
- These types of playful behavior’s are signs of advanced intelligence.
- Dolphins swim great distances, sometimes as far as 100miles each day.
Blowhole:
- They cannot breathe under water like fish and so have to come out to the surface of water to breathe in air now and then.
- Dolphins have a blowhole on the top of their head.
- When they breathe out used air, they send out a fountain of water.
Food:
- Fish, crabs, shrimps and squids are their food.
- They are very clever hunters and hunt in groups.
- Dolphins are expert swimmers and very agile hunters and can remain underwater for some time.
- They cannot come and live on land like other sea mammals as seals and walruses.
Dolphin Pods:
- Dolphins are very social animals, and they swim together in groups called pods.
- A pod of dolphins usually has twelve to twenty four members.
- Dolphins form close bonds with the other members of their pods and will help a sick or injured member of their pod.
- Sometimes, a number of pods join together to form a super pod with hundreds or thousands of dolphins.
- Dolphins benefit from being in pods because they can help each other.
- But swimming in pods can also make dolphins a target.
- Fishermen look for pods of dolphins to get caught in nets.
Endangered animals:
- But sadly, some types of dolphins have become endangered.
- Endangered animals are dying faster than young animals are born to replace them.
- Pollution makes it difficult to continue living in its natural habitat.
- Otherwise, humans hunt the animals so that they cannot reproduce fast enough to replace their lost individuals.
- A common disaster for marine mammals like dolphins is that they may get trapped in fishnets, even if the nets are meant to catch fish.
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