Interesting Facts/ Few lines on Dolphin

by FLT 4 3

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.