Have you ever seen a dolphin or watched a video of one? They love to play in the water and jump out of the water and do tricks.
A dolphin is not a fish. They are mammals. Humans are also mammals. Dolphins give birth to live baby dolphin and the baby will drink milk from the mom until it is big enough to hunt and eat fish. This milk is very rich in vitamins and minerals and the baby dolphin grows very fast.
A mammal is an animal that breathes air, has a backbone, and grows hair at some point during its life. In addition, all female mammals have glands that can produce milk. Mammals are among the most intelligent of all living creatures. Mammals include a wide variety of animals, from cats to humans to whales.
A baby dolphin is born tail first, not like other mammals that are born head first. If a dolphin gets born head first it will drown. There are usually other female dolphins around that will take the baby to the surface of the water to take its first breath.
Just like humans, dolphins also need to breathe and they use there 'blowhole' to do that. The blowhole will open up once they are above the surface of the water and will close again if they go under water. A dolphin can stay under water for up to 15 minutes before they need to come up for air again.
Dolphins are very compassionate animals and there are many stories where they have saved people from drowning or protected them against sharks while out at sea. We can learn a lot from how these animals care for one another and others.
Dolphins can not only use their eyes to see, because sometimes the water is murky and dark and they will not be able to spot the fish they are hunting or where they need to swim. While swimming under water, they make a 'clicking' sound. This sound is reflected off the objects like the fish or rocks and is send back to the dolphin where it is picked up by the bottom jaw, send to the middle ear and interpreted by the brain. This way the dolphin will know if there are anything in front of him. Get some more information here.
Listen to the different sound dolphins make. These sounds are used to communicate with one another.
Sometimes we hear of large pods of dolphins that swim out on the beach. If they are not helped quickly they will die. Scientists believe that the reason why this happen is when there are earthquakes under the see and because of the pressure that builds up, it influences the 'radar' of the dolphins and they get off course.
Just like all animals on earth, the dolphins are also special and needs to be protected. Some people unfortunately do not care and some fisherman know that they will find tuna fish where the dolphins are and they throw the nets close to the dolphins and that way many gets trapped and dies in the nets. Make sure if you eat tuna that you only eat 'dolphin friendly' tuna, which means that no dolphins were trapped or harmed when the fisherman caught the tuna.
Dolphins are not only entertaining, they are also very clever and caring animals. Be kind to all animals.
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