Interesting facts about dolphins for children. Dolphins brief information. The most amazing facts about the life of dolphins

Dolphins are rightfully considered the most smart creatures sea ​​depths. Dolphins belong to the group of mammals. They feed their young with milk. In addition, dolphins communicate with each other using sounds. They also understand people very well and can be trained. There are cases in history when dolphins saved people. Therefore, we suggest further viewing more interesting and amazing facts about dolphins.

1. The most popular and most amazing animals among all types of marine animals are considered to be dolphins.

2. Cheerful character and high intelligence these are famous sea ​​creatures.

3. During sleep, only half of their brains are used by dolphins.

4. An average dolphin can eat about 13 kg of fish per day.

5. Wide spectrum sounds are able to create these marine animals.

6. One of the loudest sounds of dolphins is a click.

7. Dolphins help people with developmental disabilities and psychological therapy.

8. Dolphins in a playful situation can create bubbles.

9. The largest member of the dolphin family is the killer whale.

10. More than nine meters in length can reach killer whales.

11. Dolphins have sex for pleasure.

12. These sea creatures can swim at speeds up to 40 km per hour.

13. More than 11 km per hour - the usual swimming speed of dolphins.

14. Dolphins are considered the most intelligent animals in the world.

15. Mostly in flocks of up to ten individuals, these marine animals live.

16. Temporary dolphin associations can reach 1000 individuals.

17. About 120 cm is the length of the smallest dolphin.

18. Up to 11 tons can reach the weight of the largest representative of this family.

19. The average dolphin weighs over 40 kg.

20. The skin of these sea creatures is very thin.

21. Dolphin skin is easily damaged by sharp objects.

22. Twelve months can last a period of pregnancy in female dolphins.

23. About 17 months is the gestation period for killer whales.

24. There are about 100 teeth in oral cavity dolphin.

25. Dolphins do not chew their food, but swallow it.

26. From the Greek word "Delphis" comes the name of the dolphin.

27. Dolphins can dive up to 304 meters deep.

28. Many of these marine animals live in fairly shallow water.

29. Within the group, bonds between dolphins are very strong.

30. Dolphins can take care of injured and sick individuals.

31. These sea creatures breathe air.

32. These marine animals inhale air through the breather.

33. Most species of dolphins live in salt water.

34. At 61, the oldest dolphin died.

35. These marine animals give birth to babies tail first.

36. Dolphins use echolocation to find food.

37. An interesting hunting tactic is very often used by these sea creatures.

38. Dolphins can't fully sleep to breathe constantly.

39. Dolphins are considered very interesting and playful animals.

40. These marine animals can jump to a height of about six meters.

41. Dolphins can play with some kinds of animals.

42. Dolphins learn foreign languages.

43. Swimming with these sea creatures helps relieve stress, tension and insomnia.

44. Since ancient times, dolphins have attracted people with their benevolence.

45. About 70 species of these sea creatures are known today.

46. ​​Dolphins recognize their reflection in the mirror.

47. Dolphins in the water constantly swim in circles.

48. These sea ​​creatures live in family flocks.

49. Dolphins help each other in a flock.

50. Every dolphin has a name.

51. Dolphins are very similar to people.

52. These sea creatures have a four-chambered heart.

53. The brain of dolphins has the same weight as that of humans.

54. A dolphin cannot look at objects straight ahead.

55. About seven minutes without air these sea creatures can spend under water.

56. Using echolocation, dolphins communicate with each other.

57. Up to 20 minutes, a dolphin can stay under water in case of danger.

58. Certain serious skills of dolphins allow them to easily adapt to any environment.

59. During the first month of life, these sea creatures do not sleep.

60. Dolphins can use the sonar system of sound signals continuously for 15 days.

61. The world dolphins explore with squeaks and clicks.

62. The eyes of these creatures can see a 300-degree panoramic environment.

63. Dolphins can look in different directions at the same time.

64. These sea creatures are able to see in low light.

65. Every two hours, the entire layer of skin in dolphins changes.

67. Any damage to the skin of dolphins heals quickly.

68. These sea creatures do not experience pain.

69. Dolphins can continue to play after being seriously injured.

70. Dolphins are capable of producing natural painkillers.

71. Dolphins are able to convert 80% of their energy into thrust.

72. With open wounds, dolphins swim in the ocean.

73. These sea creatures have an excellent immune system.

74. Dolphins are able to absorb antibiotics.

75. These sea creatures are able to feel the Earth's magnetic field.

76. With high solar activity, dolphins can be washed ashore.

77. The sonar system of dolphins is considered a unique phenomenon.

78. An amazing ability to detect objects at a distance is characteristic of dolphins.

79. In nature, there are albinos - rare view dolphins.

80. With the help of the nasal air sac, these sea creatures reproduce sounds.

82. With the help of breathing under water, dolphins can blow bubbles.

83. Shellfish, squid and fish are included in the habitual diet of dolphins.

84. These sea creatures can eat up to 30 kg of food per day.

85. At a distance of up to 20 meters, these sea creatures can recognize other animals.

86. Dolphins are very easy to tame and train.

87. More than 14,000 words make up the vocabulary of these marine animals.

88. Dolphins can communicate using sign language.

89. These marine animals are able to repeat words after a person.

90. land mammals are the ancestors of dolphins.

91. About 49 million years ago, the ancestors of dolphins moved into the water.

92. Dolphins live on average for more than 50 years.

93. There are four river species dolphins.

94. There are 32 types of sea creatures.

95. Dolphins were considered a sacred animal in Ancient Greece.

96. Dolphins inherit their skills and abilities.

97. These sea creatures cannot smell.

98. Dolphins cannot distinguish certain tastes.

99. Dolphins live with their mother for three years.

100. The pink dolphin is considered a unique species and lives in the Amazon.

Dolphins are deservedly considered the most amazing creatures all over the world! In the soul of any person, even far from receptive, they can cause a storm of emotions. Dolphins are smart, friendly and empathetic creatures, and on top of that, today is World Whale and Dolphin Day. So this post is about them.

Who are dolphins? We all know that dolphins are small whales. Like other cetaceans, dolphins do not breathe with gills, but with air. They never leave the sea, their cubs are born here. The mother feeds them with milk, so dolphins are mammals. They are warm-blooded. They have sharp teeth and their head ends in a bird's beak-like mouth. The main food of dolphins is fish, shellfish and small marine animals. Regular dolphins are about 1.6 meters long. They have a large mouth with 80-100 teeth. From above they are black or gray in color, and their stomach is white with black fins. Porpoises belong to the same family as dolphins. The harbor porpoise, which lives at all latitudes from Greenland to North Africa, is one of the most peaceful dolphins. In addition to fish, she eats crustaceans and even algae. Therefore, she tries to stay in shallow water, where there is a lot of food for her.

Smell of dolphins. Many important secrets of dolphins are still not fully understood and explained by researchers. Researchers made many mistakes on the way of studying living beings, involuntarily comparing the object of their research with a person. Such mistakes were once made in the study of the olfactory apparatus of dolphins. Considering the sense of smell of dolphins with an eye to the olfactory mechanisms inherent in other mammals, and, in particular, in humans, a hasty and not entirely correct conclusion was made that the sense of smell does not play a significant role in the life of dolphins. For a long time it was believed that short-term surfacing of dolphins could hardly be sufficient to analyze odors using the nasal passage, which generally closes during diving and being under water and does not allow the dolphin to smell in the water. Based on these statements, erroneous conclusions were drawn about the underdevelopment of the olfactory organs in dolphins, and these conclusions are currently being revised. Observations of dolphins living both in aquariums and in the natural environment have shown that dolphins not only leave odorous traces of their presence in the water, but also instantly react to traces left by other inhabitants of the water expanses. The mechanisms and receptors responsible for the perception of odorous signals require serious study, and research in this area can radically change our understanding of the life of marine inhabitants.

Dolphin Legends. There are many myths and legends about dolphins. They tell how these animals helped sailors in trouble, saved the drowning. I want to tell you one of the legends about the eternally young god Dionysus, who in ancient Greece was considered the god of entertainment and holidays. Once the sea robbers managed to take him prisoner. However, they did not know that they did not capture an ordinary youth, but a god. In the plans, they already saw a good ransom for the captive, whom they were going to sell into slavery. However, when the robbers tried to shackle Dionysus in chains, they did not succeed, the fetters themselves fell off his hands and feet. The pirates were at a loss, but when they saw that wine was streaming out of nowhere on the deck, and the masts of their ship began to be covered with ivy and vines, they guessed that the god Dionysus himself was in front of them. From the horror of what they had done, the robbers rushed in all directions into the open sea to escape the wrath of God. However, Dionysus decided that they did not deserve to die in the depths of the sea and did not let them drown. Instead, he turned them into dolphins. Another legend tells us that Apollo, another god of ancient Greece, could himself turn into a dolphin. Once he rescued a wandering ship of Cretan sailors and helped him get to the shore, escorting the ship and showing the right way. Now, in the place where the dolphin god led the sailors, a city called Delphi was founded. Once upon a time, by the way, in Delphi was famous temple Apollo. It is interesting that some tribes and peoples have legends associated with dolphins, in which they believe to this day. For example, in one African tribe they firmly believe that pink dolphins living in the waters of the Amazon River are able to turn into young people of unprecedented beauty on a full moon, who seduce young and inexperienced girls. Another African tribe believes that the soul of a drowned person is reborn in a dolphin, which certain moment can also turn into a young man.

"Conversation" of dolphins. Marine mammals are by no means silent. Now it turned out that all whales make sounds, but dolphins turned out to be the most “talkative”. They use sound signals of a wide variety of frequencies. The ultrasounds emitted by them serve mainly for echolocation. In the language of dolphins, whistles are very important, which are used in different situations, expressing a whole range of feelings. They are very diverse in their characteristics - each dolphin has its own manner of "speech". Therefore, by the nature of the whistle, dolphins in a group recognize each other. In addition, dolphins have sounds that we hear without special adaptations. They are also quite varied. These are barking, screeching, chirping, as well as howling, clicking and grunting. The biological meaning of many signals has not yet been elucidated, but individual sounds managed to decipher. For example, jaw-clapping is a threat signal, a signal such as a loud squeal is strong pain, yelping is the expectation of food, and a sound such as barking is a “talk” between males and females during the mating season. Dolphins imitate extraneous sounds well, and the famous dolphin Elvar could even pronounce some human words. Based on their work with dolphins, some scientists have concluded that they can be taught meaningful human speech.

Is dialogue with dolphins possible? Among all the animals that inhabit the globe, we consider only man to be a rational being. But there are animals about which it can also be said that they are endowed with intelligence. These are dolphins. Their brains are larger and richer in convolutions than a human. Numerous facts of saving people by dolphins speak about the mind of these animals. And “language”, one of the evidence of the presence of the mind, it turns out, dolphins have. With its help, they transmit a wide variety of information to each other. If people learned to understand this "language", perhaps they would be able to unravel many of the mysteries of the ocean. Domestic and foreign scientists have discovered many regularities in the "language" of dolphins. They found that when communicating with each other, marine "intellectuals" use several hundred diverse and complex sound signals. Interestingly, in normal conversation we use the same number of words. Experts analyzed the "language" of dolphins and found that it is built in much the same way as human speech. Unfortunately, so far scientists' attempts to decipher the "language" of dolphins have ended in failure. But if we can't exchange thoughts, why don't we try to communicate on the level of feelings?

Sea acrobats. Representatives of the dolphin family are one of the most sociable and friendly members of the animal kingdom. In total, 40 species of dolphins live in the World Ocean. The two most famous representatives of dolphins are bottlenose dolphin and common dolphin, or common dolphin. Bottlenose dolphins are especially numerous off the eastern coast of the United States, as well as in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Common dolphins live in the temperate and warm waters of the Pacific Ocean. The length of the bottlenose dolphin is from two to three meters. Usually the coloration is dark brown above, turning white on the belly. Apparently, the dolphins of ancient myths are bottlenose dolphins. Nowadays, it is the bottlenose dolphin that is most often used for experiments. During the Vietnam War, the Americans used specially trained bottlenose dolphins to mine bays and moorings. The common dolphin is smaller than the bottlenose dolphin. Its length is about 2.5 meters, the sides are covered with brown, yellow and white stripes. The dark stripe that borders the eyes and disappears on the beak gives the white-barrel a very pretty look. White flanks love to accompany ships. They jump out of the water or swim, almost standing on the caudal fin and peering into the distance. Seeing the ship, they surround it from all sides and, as if welcoming the sailors, begin to jump high out of the water. White flanks can swim tirelessly for tens of kilometers and perform various acrobatic stunts for hours.

Interesting facts from the life of dolphins. Of course, it's no secret that dolphins are one of the most mysterious animal species on our Earth. Their intelligence is considered so high that they can be compared with humans. Dolphins always help each other and never leave their brothers in trouble. In this they are very similar to people, they are characterized by mutual assistance and self-sacrifice. The hearing of dolphins is unique, it operates on the principle of an echo-locator. The range of an object, its size, shape, they can determine by the reflected sounds. Therefore, in the water space, they are guided more by hearing than by sight. They can eat up to 30 kilograms of fish per day. This is very important because they are warm-blooded animals and they need to maintain a constant body temperature in any water, even very cold. And their body temperature is quite high. It is also interesting how dolphins sleep. In the sea, it is easy to drown or fall prey to other predators. And in this regard, the sleep of dolphins is not like the sleep of ordinary animals. During sleep, one hemisphere of the dolphin is resting, and the second is awake, that is, it is vigilant. Therefore, the dolphin always controls the situation and at the same time rests. The life of dolphins is not very long, only about 30 years, in more rare cases - 40-45. Replenishment in the dolphin family occurs approximately once every two years. Dolphins can be compared to penguins in that they are very touching parents who protect, teach and take care of their cubs for about five years.

The uniqueness of dolphins. Dolphins are mysterious and very intelligent animals. They have two unique hearing types. They see equally well both in water and in the air - this ability has not yet been solved either. Dolphins are very fast animals - they reach speeds of up to 55 kilometers per hour. They are exceptionally intelligent. Much easier to train than dogs. Two or three shows are enough for them. Dolphins carefully take the fish from the plate, catch it on the fly and take it from the trainer's hands, jumping to a height of more than four meters. They serve things thrown into the water, jump through a hoop engulfed in flames, play basketball and water polo, throwing balls with great accuracy. They perfectly imitate the human voice, uttering whole phrases. The ability to imitate dolphins is much higher than that of parrots. In ancient legends of different nations, the ability of dolphins to save drowning people was praised. Several real cases are known. In print, these real cases explained by the "humanity" and friendliness of dolphins towards humans. In fact, these behaviors are most likely based on an inherited reaction. Because dolphins are social creatures, they live in families. As a rule, the family is headed by a female dolphin, and this is useful when young dolphins grow up. And during the journey, several families come together to create more high level protection.

The ability of dolphins to heal wounds. Nature hides great wonders from us. What are they worth amazing abilities dolphins that have been spotted Michael Zaslow, Research Associate at Georgetown Medical Center. Recently, on the pages of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, the scientist published his article, in which he spoke about documented cases of serious injuries to dolphins, which they most likely received in fights with sharks. Deep bites that could be compared to a basketball ball healed very quickly, literally in weeks. At the same time, they almost did not bring any pain to the dolphins, and did not leave scars after healing. Some amazing features work together to enhance the dolphin's resilience. The first of these is the ability to not experience bleeding. Zaslow said that marine mammals have the ability to trigger a mechanism that stops blood flow to parts of the body. Secondly, in the process of wound healing, the dolphin does not show any signs of infection. The researchers found that the skin and fat layer of animals contain antibacterial compounds that can stop infection in open wounds. “Within a few weeks, dolphins can replace all the lost tissue, even the size of two soccer balls, without any defects or scars on the body,” Zaslow says. They have the ability to use the regenerative abilities of specialized stem cells, such as many amphibians, that can grow new legs.

Thus, science knows that there is a unique animal in the world that has developed and continues to develop in the waters of the ocean without arms and legs. This animal is able to swim much faster than us, and it has an intelligence that is most likely equal in complexity to human emotional and social abilities. In addition, this animal has the healing power to restore its own body. This is a dolphin.

The dolphin is a representative of the suborder of toothed whales, the order of cetaceans, the dolphin family (Delphinidae). The graceful body of the dolphin has a spindle-shaped streamlined shape, which allows these mammals to quickly cut through the water surface. The speed of the dolphin reaches 50 km/h.

Humans and Dolphins

People have known about the extraordinary mind and quick wit of dolphins for a long time. These charming animals rescue people from ships in distress, preventing them from drowning. You could even say that dolphins are the smartest animals on the planet. Many trainers believe that the intelligence of dolphins can be equated to a human, these animals behave so intelligently and unusually.

There is a joke about dolphins, which tells that if a person had not overtaken the dolphins and had not climbed down from the tree before, they would come out of the water and now would be the kings of nature, replacing us.

Dolphin is smart, kind, beautiful, he is an excellent student, analyzes, remembers.

Dolphins are directly related to the formidable inhabitants of the oceans, killer whales and whales. There are about 50 species of dolphins. These include the porpoise, black dolphin, gray dolphin, white-faced dolphin, Atlantic white-sided dolphin.

The most popular is the bottlenose dolphin (large dolphin), which people basically have in mind when talking about meetings with representatives of this species. They are well studied and tamed. Bottlenose dolphins are filmed in films, they participate in programs for the rehabilitation of children suffering from various neurological ailments.

Dolphin - description and photos. What does a dolphin look like?

A dolphin is not a fish, but a mammal. Common to all species is an elongated streamlined body, which is crowned by a small dolphin head with a beak-shaped mouth. Each jaw contains 80-100 small conical teeth. The dolphin's teeth are slightly tilted inwards. The transition between the muzzle and the frontal part is well defined. Almost all members of the dolphin class have a prominent dorsal fin. The skin is supple and smooth to the touch. The length of the dolphin can reach 4.5 meters depending on the species.

Dolphins in the water move very easily, they practically do not feel its resistance due to special fatty secretions on the skin that facilitate gliding. Interestingly, the dolphin's skin is quickly erased from the friction of water. Therefore, in the deep skin layers they have a significant supply of regenerating cells. The dolphin constantly sheds, changing up to 25 layers of skin per day!

The eyes of dolphins are small, vision is poor. This is due to the fact that animals practically do not use them for hunting. The nostrils are transformed into a blowhole located on the crown of the head.

How do dolphins breathe?

Whales and dolphins are related and can stay under water for a long time without surfacing. The drawbar is closed during such periods. But, like other cetaceans, dolphins still need air underwater and periodically rise to the surface to breathe.

Do dolphins have ears?

Dolphins have no ears. But that doesn't mean they don't have hearing. Eat! True, it functions differently from other mammals. Sounds are perceived by the inner ear, and the air cushions located in the frontal part serve as resonators. But these animals are fluent in echolocation. They accurately determine the location and dimensions of the object by the reflected sound, and by the wavelength - the distance to it.

How Do Dolphins Sleep?

Dolphins also have another interesting physiological feature: they never sleep. Animals hang in the water column, periodically rising to the surface for breathing. During rest, they are able to alternately turn off either the left or the right hemisphere of the brain, that is, only one half of the dolphin's brain sleeps, while the other is awake.

Where do dolphins live?

The habitat of the dolphin is exclusively water bodies. The dolphin lives in almost all places on our planet, with the exception of the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Dolphins live in the sea, in the ocean, as well as in large freshwater rivers (Amazonian river dolphin). These mammals love space and move freely over long distances.

Dolphin language

Dolphins are animals social, live in packs, in which there can be from 10 to 100 (sometimes more) individuals, fighting off enemies with common efforts. Inside the pack, there is practically no competition or fights between them; fellow tribesmen coexist peacefully with each other. Dolphins communicate using sounds and signals. Dolphin language extraordinarily varied. The "talk" of these mammals includes clicking, whistling, barking, and chirping. The dolphin voice spectrum extends from the lowest frequencies to ultrasonic. Moreover, they can add simple sounds into words and sentences, passing information to each other.

What do dolphins eat?

The diet of dolphins includes only fish, preference is given to sardines and anchovies. The method of hunting used by animals is also interesting. A flock of dolphins finds a school of fish and with special sounds forces it to huddle into a dense group. As a result of such hunting, most of the school becomes the prey of dolphins. This feature is often used by gulls, attacking frightened fish from the air. There are known facts when dolphins helped fishermen by driving a joint to them in the net.

Sharks and dolphins

An interesting fact is that sharks and dolphins live in symbiosis. They often hunt together without showing any aggression towards each other.

Dolphin species

There are 17 genera in the dolphin family. The most interesting varieties of dolphins:

• White-bellied dolphin (black dolphin, Chilean dolphin) ( Cephalorhynchus eutropia)

lives exclusively on the coast of Chile. An animal with a rather modest size - the length of the stocky and rather thick body of this cetacean does not exceed 170 cm. The back and sides of the white-bellied dolphin have grey colour, while the throat, belly area and parts of the flippers adjacent to the body are absolutely white. The flippers and dorsal fin of the white-bellied dolphin are smaller than those of other dolphin species. This species is close to extinction, protected by the Chilean authorities.

• Common dolphin (common dolphin) ( Delphinus delphis)

The length of a marine animal often reaches 2.4 meters, the weight of a dolphin varies between 60-80 kilograms. In the back area, an ordinary dolphin is painted dark blue or almost black, the belly is white, and a spectacular yellowish-gray stripe runs along the light sides. This species of dolphins lives in the waters of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, feels at ease in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There is a common dolphin on east coast South America, along the coasts of New Zealand and South Africa, in the seas of Japan and Korea.

• white-faced dolphin ( Lagenorhynchus albirostris)

a large representative of cetaceans with a body length reaching 3 meters and weighing up to 275 kg. Distinctive feature The white-faced dolphin has a very light, sometimes snow-white muzzle. The habitat of this mammal includes the waters of the North Atlantic, the coast of Portugal and Turkey. The dolphin feeds on fish such as capelin, saffron cod, flounder, herring, cod, whiting, as well as molluscs and crustaceans.

• Large-toothed dolphin ( Steno bredanensis)

The body length of this marine mammal is 2-2.6 meters, weight varies from 90 to 155 kg. Height dorsal fin is 18-28 cm. The color of the dolphin is dominated by gray, over which whitish spots are “scattered”. This species of dolphin is common off the coast of Brazil, in the Gulf of Mexico and California, lives in the warm waters of the Caribbean and Red Seas.

• bottlenose dolphin (large dolphin or bottlenose dolphin) ( Tursiops truncatus)

The length of the animal can vary from 2.3 to 3.6 meters, and weight from 150 to 300 kg. The body color of the bottlenose dolphin depends on the habitat, but basically the species has a dark brown upper body and a grayish-white belly. Sometimes there is a weakly pronounced pattern in the form of fuzzy stripes or spots on the sides. The bottlenose dolphin lives in the Mediterranean, Red, Baltic and Black Seas, and is often found in the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Japan, Argentina and New Zealand.

• Broad-faced dolphin (beakless dolphin) ( Peponocephala electra)

common in the waters of countries with tropical climate, especially massive populations live along the coast of the Hawaiian Islands. The torpedo-shaped, light gray body of the animal is crowned with a cone-shaped dark gray head. The length of a mammal often reaches 3 meters, and an adult individual weighs more than 200 kg.

• Chinese dolphin ( sousa chinensis)

This representative of the genus of humpback dolphins lives in the waters along the coast of Southeast Asia, but migrates during the breeding season, therefore it is found in bays, quiet sea lagoons and even rivers washing Australia and South Africa. The length of the animal can be 2-3.5 meters with a weight of 150-230 kg. Surprisingly, although dolphins are born absolutely black, as they grow, the body color changes first to light gray, with slightly pinkish spots, and adults become almost white. The Chinese dolphin feeds on fish and shellfish.

• Irrawaddy dolphin ( Orcaella brevirostris)

A distinctive feature of this species of dolphins is the complete absence of a beak on the muzzle and a flexible neck, which received mobility due to several skin and muscle folds behind the head. The color of the body of the Irrawaddy dolphin can be either light gray with a blue tint or dark gray, while the belly of the animal is always a tone lighter. In length it aquatic mammal reaches 1.5-2.8 meters with a weight of 115-145 kg. The habitat of the dolphin covers the waters of warm indian ocean, starting from the Bay of Bengal and up to the northern coast of Australia.

• Cruciform Dolphin ( Lagenorhynchus cruciger)

lives exclusively in the waters of the Antarctic and subantarctic. The color of the dolphin is black and white, less often - dark gray. Spectacular mark white color, covering the sides of the mammal, stretches to its muzzle, framing the eye area. The second mark runs along the back of the body, intersecting with the first and forming an hourglass pattern. An adult cruciform dolphin has a body length of about 2 meters in length, the weight of a dolphin varies between 90-120 kilograms.

• Killer whale (killer whale) ( Orcinus orca)

a mammal that belongs to the dolphin family, a genus of killer whales. The male killer whale has a length of about 10 meters and a weight of around 8 tons. Females are smaller: their length reaches 8.7 meters. Pectoral flippers of killer whales have a wide oval shape. Killer whale teeth are quite long - up to 13 cm in length. The sides and back of the mammal are black, the throat is white, and there is a white stripe on the belly. There are white spots above the eyes. Sometimes completely black or white individuals are found in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The killer whale lives in all waters of the oceans, except Sea of ​​Azov, Black Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea.

Dolphin breeding, baby dolphins

Dolphins do not have a pronounced mating season. Reproduction occurs at any time of the year. Mates with females, as a rule, the leader of the pack. Pregnancy lasts approximately 18 weeks and is quite difficult. The female dolphin becomes clumsy, loses the ability to move quickly and often becomes the prey of enemies. The dolphin brings 1 cub about once every 2 years. Small dolphins about 50-60 centimeters long are born right afloat, fully capable and able to follow their mother from the first minutes.

baby dolphins feed on mother's milk, eat frequently and grow rapidly. Feeding stops by one and a half years, when the dolphin begins to feed on fish on its own.

The upbringing and education of babies is carried out exclusively by females. Male dolphins are not caring fathers.

• The level of development of dolphins is extremely high, so they devote a lot of time not only to getting food, but also to communication, games and even sex. These are perhaps the only animals (except humans, of course) sexual relations which are beyond the scope of procreation. These mammals play with great pleasure: dolphins jump out of the water for several meters, just hovering for a moment or making complex figures in the air, pirouettes, screws. Playing dolphins very often attract the attention of ship passengers.
• Unlike fish, the dolphin swings its tail in an up/down direction.
• In the mouth of a sexually mature dolphin, there are 210 sharp teeth, while they play a role only in capturing food, but dolphins swallow their prey without chewing, since they do not have a chewing reflex.
• Dolphins don't sleep! Rather, only one hemisphere of the brain sleeps in them, while the second is awake and intuitively pushes the dolphin to the surface of the water surface to take another breath.
• It is currently forbidden to hunt these interesting and charming animals. Despite all conservation measures, the number of dolphins is declining, and some of them are almost extinct. Now many water parks are working on breeding endangered species, as well as studying and training dolphins.

Dolphins have long been one of the most beloved waterfowl for humans. And this is not surprising! After all, dolphins are the most peaceful, smart and friendly creatures on the planet! When we talk about dolphins, we always imagine trained cetacean creatures performing acrobatic stunts before our eyes. However, there are countries that categorically oppose dolphinariums, believing that these smart creatures should not live outside natural environment, after all, and so from year to year, the number of dolphins is significantly reduced. And only the human factor is to blame.

A bit of history

It is assumed that the sperm whale, whale, dolphin, including the sea pig, descended from the same ancestors - mammals that inhabited the earth millions of years ago, but were not purely land animals, but rather liked to hunt and live in the water. These are mesonichids - omnivorous creatures with hooves, like those of horses and cows, with a predatory, wolf appearance. According to approximate data, mesonychids lived for more than sixty million years, and they inhabited the modern continent of Asia, part mediterranean sea(in ancient times it was the Tethys Sea). These animals, most likely, fed on any medium-sized aquatic animals and any fish that then inhabited the numerous swamps off the coast.

And due to the fact that mesonychids spent most of their lives in any body of water, their appearance gradually began to develop in breadth, flow around, the limbs turned into fins, while the hair on the skin began to disappear, and thick subcutaneous fat developed and intensified under it. To make it easier for animals to breathe, the nostrils ceased to fulfill their original function: in the process of evolution, they became a vital organ for the animal, since creatures could breathe through them, and that’s all, thanks to their displacement to the top of the head.

Even for a long time it was believed that the ancestors of cetaceans, including dolphins, are indeed mesonychids, nevertheless, they “borrowed” most of all from hippos, and numerous molecular studies prove this. Dolphins are not just descendants of these artiodactyls, they are still deeply similar and belong to their group. Until now, hippos and hippos live mainly in the water, on land they are only a couple of hours to eat. That is why scientists suggest that hippos are one of the evolutionary branches of cetaceans. It's just that the whales went further than the hippos, they generally abandoned life on land and completely switched to life in the water.

And if it seems strange to you that hippos with hooves are related to legless cetaceans, then we want to give another version of taxonomy, for example, land animals with 4 legs that evolved from fish. Simply, we should not be surprised that long, as our civilization appeared, the evolution of dolphins went so rapidly.

Description of dolphins

Dolphins are large aquatic animals that breathe air, unlike fish, whose respiratory function is provided by gills. Sea dolphins are in the water all 24 hours, and here they give birth to little dolphins. Since the female herself feeds her babies, therefore they are warm-blooded creatures, mammals.

Unlike relatives - whales, dolphins are more beautiful creatures. In addition to sharp teeth in their smart and friendly look, you can not find any sinister intrigues. So, an adult dolphin can be 2.5 meters long, weighs only three hundred kilograms. Whereas it can be nine meters long and weigh eight tons. Males are always larger than females, at least 20 centimeters. They have over eighty teeth. The color of the body and fins is black or gray, while the tummy is white.

The largest organ The cetacean dolphin has a brain that is surprisingly awake all the time the dolphin sleeps. The brain allows the animal to breathe all the time, even when it sleeps: this way the dolphin will not drown, because the supply of oxygen for cetaceans is very important for life.

Scientists have called the skin of dolphins a natural miracle. This is their wealth! When dolphins calmly extinguish water turbulence, when the body needs to slow down a little.

This is interesting!
The creators of submarines have long looked closely at how dolphins swim. Thanks to the dolphins, the designers managed to create an artificial skin for the submarine.

Dolphins: what they eat and how they hunt

Shellfish, various types of fish and other aquatic animals are the food of the dolphin. Interestingly, dolphins can eat a lot of fish in a day. Dolphins hunt fish in packs, and each of its members can eat up to thirty kilograms. All this is due to the fact that dolphins are animals that, at too low temperature conditions ocean or sea water (below zero degrees Celsius) must always maintain its own temperature in order to be optimal. And warm-blooded dolphins help in this thick subcutaneous fat, which is constantly replenished due to a huge amount of food. That is why dolphins are always on the move, hunting, and only at night allow themselves a little rest.

A flock of dolphins can very quickly catch up with a flock of fish, because in the sea these animals are aces. If the dolphins are already close to the beach, they instantly form half rings around the fish in order to push their future food to shallow water and eat there. As soon as dolphins capture fish schools, they do not immediately rush at them, but then continue to keep them in a circle so that they do not swim away, and each member of the flock can have lunch or dinner with their favorite food.

To see dolphins, it is enough to find a school of fish. Precisely these cetaceans will live where there are many, many fish. In summer, dolphins can be seen in abundance in Azov, when mullet and anchovy move into the sea to feed. Dolphins also swim close to the Caucasian shores in early autumn, when the fish begin to migrate in herds.

As you have noticed, it is rare to see one dolphin in the ocean, as these animals are very friendly, they love to live in packs, hunt together and even jump beautifully and perform their tricks harmoniously, dolphins are able to do it together with their comrades. Be that as it may, dolphins never got along with killer whales. Also, there are still poachers who prey on these friendly earthly creatures. Despite everything, dolphins trust people and even know how to communicate not only with each other, but also with other animals. They will never leave their comrades in trouble. And in case of severe danger, they can even help a person. How many legends and stories about dolphins saving people's lives exist in the world. Some even watched as the dolphins pushed boats that were carried away by the winds to the shores.

Dolphin breeding

Unlike other inhabitants water world, dolphins are the only ones that are born with tails, not heads. And that's the way it is. Loving mothers do not leave their cubs even two or three years after birth.

This is interesting!
Dolphins are incredibly sensual and compassionate animals. A little dolphin, even after it becomes completely independent, an adult male or female, never under any circumstances leaves its parents.

And not only to their own brethren, dolphins experience great affection and love, but even to whales, other animals (they don’t like killer whales) and people. Once a female and a male have babies, they never part, even after having multiple babies. Who, if not dolphins, knows how to love their cubs, gently and lovingly deal with them, teach them, take them with them to hunt, so that soon the children themselves will know how to hunt fish.

This is interesting!
If dolphins hunt and feel danger, they lead their children from behind, but if there are no external threats, dolphin cubs calmly swim ahead of their parents. Interestingly, after the cubs, the females swim, and then the males are the defenders.

Relationships with people

Since each dolphin with its tribesmen and whales lives in peace and harmony, it behaves accordingly. The feeling of help in these animals is developed to a special extent. They will never leave a sick dolphin to die, they will even save a choking person at sea if, by a lucky chance, they find themselves side by side. Dolphins will hear a human cry for help far away, as their hearing is very highly developed, as well as the brain section.

The fact is that dolphins spend all their time in the water, which is why their vision is weakened (weak water transparency). Then, as the hearing is developed superbly. The dolphin uses active location - hearing is able to analyze the echo that occurs when it emits characteristic sounds from any objects surrounding the animal. Based on this, the echo tells the dolphin what shape, how long the objects around it are, what they are made of, in general, what they are. As you can see, hearing completely helps to fulfill the visual role for the dolphin, which does not prevent this peace-loving creature from feeling complete in such a complex world.

It's easier than ever for a human to tame a dolphin. Fortunately, like a dog, the animal is easy and simple to train. One has only to entice the dolphin with a delicious fish. He will perform any somersault for the public. Although dolphins have one flaw, they can forget any trick very quickly if a person forgets to feed him in time.

Why do we all treat dolphins differently than other animals. Looking at these cute and funny creatures, you forget about how huge these animals are, and how, despite their size, they are the only cetaceans that can be safely classified as best “friends”.

Dolphins, like grandmothers on a bench, curious overly. They swim up to a person with interest, flirt with him, throw a ball, and even smile, although few people notice this. They are so arranged, smile at us, laugh with us. Well, we can't call a dolphin's face a muzzle, the smile on his face is cheerful and friendly - that's what attracts us to them!

Dolphins love us, we love them. But there are ... heartless people who, for the sake of profit, forget about humanity and kill these peaceful creatures. In Japan, dolphin hunting is like a giveaway! They don't even think about talking about sympathy for dolphins. On other continents, dolphins are placed in dolphinariums for the amusement of the people. In cramped conditions in which they do not live longer than five years (for comparison, in nature, dolphins live up to fifty years).

This is interesting!
The Indian state became the fourth in the world to ban the construction of dolphinariums. Asian Chile, Costa Rica, and Hungary were the first to ban these cetaceans in captivity. For Indians, dolphins are like a person who also has the right to freedom and life in nature.

Dolphin therapy

The history of the great friendship between sea dolphins and humans goes back far into the past, even before scientists began to call these animals dolphins. Researchers of the body language of cetaceans have come to the conclusion that they have developed verbal communication skills in the same way as humans. If a mentally ill child, an autist, spends a lot of time with dolphins and “communicates” with them, then this has a beneficial effect on him. The child begins to smile and laugh. The British talked about this back in the 70s of the last century. Subsequently, dolphin therapy began to be actively used to treat not only mental and neurological diseases, but also many physical ones. Swimming with dolphins together is useful, you can relieve stress, severe headaches, neuralgia and even rheumatism.

Anomalies in behavior

All of you, probably, have seen such a picture on the news or on the Internet, when the beaches are full of voluntarily ejected dolphins. Often they themselves are thrown away, because they are very sick, injured, or poisoned. Dolphins clearly hear sounds from the shore, which are very similar to cries for help from their fellows. Therefore, upon hearing such a cry, dolphins rush to the shore to help, and often find themselves trapped.

Each dolphin in the ocean has its own name, to which it responds when called by relatives. He receives it as soon as he is born, and it is a characteristic whistle lasting 0.9 seconds. Dolphins not only call each other by name, but also introduce themselves when meeting strangers. And to identify a relative by voice, without seeing him, is a couple of trifles for them.

Dolphins are mammals from the family of toothed whales of the cetacean order. There are about forty species of these animals on the planet, and you can see them anywhere. Most dolphins prefer to live in tropical and subtropical latitudes, but there are those who like colder waters, so they can be seen close to the Arctic, and some species are found both there and there. For example, although the white-faced dolphin lives mainly in the North Atlantic, it can often be seen off the coast of Turkey.

Most members of the family (for example, bottlenose dolphins, white-faced dolphin) are marine inhabitants, but there are four species that prefer to live in fresh river or lake water. The river dolphin lives in Asia, as well as in the waters of the South American rivers of the Amazon and Orinoco.

Unfortunately, if earlier representatives of this family met often, now the river dolphin has practically disappeared and is listed in the Red Book due to habitat loss, environmental pollution, a decrease in the amount of food and small populations.

Description

The length of dolphins ranges from one and a half to ten meters. The smallest dolphin in the world is Maui, which lives near New Zealand: the length of the female does not exceed 1.7 meters. A large inhabitant of the deep sea is considered to be a white-faced dolphin about three meters long. by the most major representative is a killer whale: the length of males reaches ten meters.

It is worth noting that males are usually ten to twenty centimeters longer than females (the exception is killer whales - here the difference is about two meters). They weigh on average from one hundred and fifty to three hundred kilograms, killer whale - about a ton.

Back sea ​​dolphins it comes in gray, blue, dark brown, black and even pink (albino) colors. The front of the head can be either solid or white (for example, a white-faced dolphin has a white beak and front of the forehead).

Due to the elongated body and smooth, elastic skin, these animals almost do not feel water resistance during movement. Thanks to this, they are able to move very quickly (the average speed of a dolphin is 40 km / h), dive to a depth of about one hundred meters, jump out of the water nine meters high and five meters long.

Another unique feature of these marine mammals is that almost all species of dolphins (with the exception of the Amazonian river dolphin and several other varieties) see well both underwater and above the surface. They have this ability due to the structure of the retina, one part of which is responsible for the image in the water, the other - above its surface.

Since whales and dolphins are relatives, like all representatives of cetaceans, they are quite capable of staying under water for a long period. But, they still need oxygen, so they constantly float to the surface, showing a blue muzzle and replenishing air supplies through a drawbar, which overlaps under water. Even during sleep, the animal is fifty centimeters from the surface and, without waking up, swims out every half a minute.

Way of life

Dolphins live in packs and do not tolerate loneliness very well. Although they do not have a leader, they perform all actions in concert: they hunt together, raise children, have fun, performing jumps of amazing beauty one after another.

The dolphin is considered one of the most intelligent mammals on our planet: the weight of its brain is 1700 grams, which is three hundred grams more than a human, and there are also twice as many convolutions in the cerebral cortex. This explains their highly developed social consciousness, ability to sympathize, readiness to help sick and wounded relatives, as well as drowning people.

Dolphins help quite actively: if one of the members of the flock is injured or barely afloat, they support him near the surface so that he cannot drown and choke. They do the same in relation to a person, helping to get to the shore. Some scientists explain why dolphins do this by caring for the population: each individual in the flock is valuable - and everything must be done to keep it alive.

Language

Animals use gestures to communicate (turns, jumps, various styles swimming, head, fins, tail), as well as a voice: the sounds of dolphins are about 14 thousand signals, and everyone has heard about the songs of dolphins. These unique animals are able to perceive the frequency of vibrations up to 200 thousand/sec, while the human ear - up to 20 thousand.

They also have a four times better ability to analyze the sounds of dolphins, separating frequencies from each other (to find out why dolphins have such abilities, in Lately lots of research is being done). Communication occurs mainly with the help of ultrasound (it is especially convenient for them to use it to transmit sound over long distances).

The songs of dolphins are not only ultrasound: the sounds of dolphins often sound at an average frequency and are expressed by clicks, squeaks, whistles (studies have shown that they perceive their speech as hieroglyphic pictures).

• Sonar or echolocation - animals hear the echo of a beating sound and identify it;
• Whistling or chirping - these sounds of dolphins are used for close communication with relatives and animals express their emotions by them. Scientists have counted about 186 different type“whistles”, which, like human speech, contain sounds, syllables, words, phrases, paragraphs, context and dialect.

Nutrition

The diet of dolphins is based on fish, squid, shrimp (some dolphins in the ocean, in order to catch their favorite prey, are quite capable of diving to a depth of 260 kilometers), killer whales eat marine mammals and birds.

They fish in different ways. Sometimes the whole flock of dolphins is looking for her, sometimes - by a separate group or sent in search of a scout. If hunting takes place on the high seas, dolphins surround a large school of fish, knocking them into a heap, after which they take turns diving there and feeding. If they fish near the shore, the strategy is somewhat different: a flock of dolphins drives schools to land, after which the fish are easily caught in shallow water.

reproduction

The ability to reproduce in females appears between the fifth and twelfth years of life, in males between the ninth and thirteenth. Their couples are unstable and animals change partners every time.

How long the pregnancy lasts is not precisely established, presumably this period is from ten to eighteen months. When giving birth, the female is very close to the surface, so that, as soon as the baby is born, raise her tail high, giving him the opportunity to take a sip of air before falling into the water.

Usually one baby about half a meter long is born, and up to six months the mother feeds him with milk and protects him. Newborn cubs usually do not fall asleep in the first month of their life and do not allow their mothers to sleep, swimming around them and emerging to the surface every thirty seconds, forcing them to be constantly on the alert.

Relationships with people

Humans and dolphins have a long and complex history: until recently, animals were actively hunted, which led to the complete and partial extinction of some species. After the fishing was banned, the situation improved, but a new trend appeared: to catch these animals for the show (especially since they are very smart and grasp everything on the fly) and giving people far from the sea the opportunity to swim with dolphins. It should be noted that the idea is not the best, because if under natural conditions the inhabitants of the sea live from thirty to fifty years, in captivity - only seven.

Their early death is primarily influenced by a too passive lifestyle, even despite constant training for participation in the show, extremely limited space and the quality of water: the lack of a complete set of nutrients and minerals they need in it.

Recently, people and dolphins have learned to interact better (first of all, this applies to humans, since these animals are sociable, friendly and peaceful). Moreover, communication with these mammals is beneficial to almost everyone: giving the opportunity to listen to the songs of dolphins, chat, stroke the blue back, feed fish, swim with dolphins, psychotherapists and doctors effectively use to treat diseases in children such as cerebral palsy, early childhood autism, etc.

Hello friends! Since you are reading this article, you are interested in learning something new about dolphins. Today you have a great opportunity to get to know them better. Dolphins are smart animals, they even treat people, as I wrote in.

Let's see who are dolphins and what they are. Like you, like me, they belong to the class of mammals. About eleven million years ago, the ancestors of dolphins decided to get out of the water, setting off to comprehend the expanses of the earth. Looking around, they were horrified. That is why the dolphins had to return to the expanses of the water surface. These beauties have teeth, being warm-blooded, feed their cubs with milk.

Habitat

Wikipedia says that they prefer the seas and oceans as their habitat. There is practically no such place where these mammals have not settled in our world. From the Red Sea to the northern reservoirs. Further - more: sometimes these animals choose rivers. The bottle-nosed species or the small bottlenose dolphin are more fond of tropical water.

How are they born?

Do you know how dolphins are born? The bottlenose dolphin bears a baby for about a year. He is born tail first. The eyes of the cub are immediately open, and the senses are as developed as possible. Moreover, the barely born dolphin already has enough coordination to follow in the footsteps of the mother, who helps to rise to the surface. Then follows the first breath in the life of a baby dolphin. This trusting relationship between a baby dolphin and its mother lasts approximately 3 to 8 years.

Dolphin mother feeding her baby dolphin

Breathtaking speed

I don’t know about you, but for me the following fact has become a real revelation. Dolphins develop amazing speed. As for the bottlenose dolphins, they develop from four to eleven kilometers per hour. The caudal fin, the strongest part of the body, helps in this. If there is such a need, the speed can develop up to 32 kilometers per hour! The body has perfect shape allowing you to move freely in the water.

Dolphins do not face such a thing as resistance. The body of a dolphin has been covered with scars since childhood, because these beauties have a uniquely smooth skin that helps them swim in the water column. Just admire, watch this video, how dolphins accompany the ship:

Dolphin breath

Another interesting fact from the life of these animals is connected with ... breathing! They breathe air. Despite the absence of gills (not like fish), they have lungs and a unique blowhole located on the upper part of the body. With it, dolphins, like whales, make all kinds of sounds. Bottlenose dolphins can hold their breath for more than seven and a half minutes! But under water they can spend no more than a quarter of an hour - otherwise they are at risk.

Gastronomic preferences

Dolphins prefer to eat different types of fish and squid. It depends on the region where the friend lives. For example, river dolphins are real gourmets. They don't care what they eat. The teeth and jaws are not sufficiently developed to make chewing movements. They swallow the fish whole.

Dolphins and humans: who is smarter?

I was also very interested to know: is it a myth that dolphins are more intelligent than humans? The brain of a bottlenose dolphin is the same size as that of a human. However, the elephant is four times more developed! the main role related to the relationship between the brain and spinal cord. For example, in a dolphin it is forty to one, while in a human it is fifty to one. Cats are five to one, but this is not an indication that they are stupid.

As far as one can tell, the ratios between humans and dolphins are close. But these animals live in a completely different environment. It requires other abilities: hearing, vision and other factors without which it is impossible to survive under water. Dolphins know how to heal people, in addition, read about it here.

Dolphin sizes

Are you wondering if a dolphin is a fish or...? In terms of size, these comrades are much larger than fish. Dolphins can be quite large. For example, the killer whale can be considered the largest of the family. Its length at birth is up to two and a half meters, amazing! Over time, the figure will reach six meters. But speaking of bottlenose dolphins, they are born, hardly a meter in length. It is rare that a bottlenose dolphin will grow, exceeding 2.5 meters.

What sounds do dolphins make?

Also, I wondered why dolphins make all sorts of sounds. I was curious to find the answer, which I am happy to share with you today. As mentioned above, the blowhole helps to "talk" to them. Here and whistle - for communication with each other, and sounds of a pulsating type, indicating an emotional state, like anger or excitement, and clicks to determine echolocation. That is, direction. The animal world never ceases to amaze.

Dolphins know how to have fun!

Do you think it's true that dolphins like to play with each other? From time to time you have to watch how these animals, jumping out of the water, get up something! Incredible acrobats. Swimming back and forth, playing with the waves, they make you hold your breath. All this has a logical explanation. Jumping out, dolphins determine where the school of fish has passed. Games make up a fairly significant part of the life of these individuals.

They like to touch pieces of coral, algae, communicate with their own kind, birds and even turtles. Riding the waves, dolphins have fun! These are their games, friends. By the way, watch this funny video of a dolphin playing with a cat, it always warms my heart after watching it:

Why don't dolphins freeze underwater?

Finally, let's find out why dolphins, being warm-blooded, do not freeze in water. Their body temperature is 36.6 degrees. In the northern seas, animals need to keep warm. Water, which conducts heat up to twenty-five times more efficiently than air, allows you to freeze much faster than in air.

Why do dolphins do such miracles?! This is due to the large layer of fat under the skin. They can control their circulation and metabolism. This makes it possible to support normal temperature body, according to wikipedia.

And finally, I will have a small request for you, I recently found this video below on the Internet, which tells and shows how dolphins live in dolphinariums, look and write in the comments what do you think about this?

Dolphins are mammals that are in the order of toothed whales, breathe with lungs and feed their babies with milk. They live in sea waters and oceans, sometimes they are found in rivers with access to the sea.

A dolphin is considered a warm-blooded animal, its body temperature must constantly be within 36.6 degrees C. To reach this mark, it must eat about 30 kg of food per day. Dolphins have more than 100 teeth, which do not take any part in chewing food. Animals swallow food whole.

Scientists have not yet really learned the whole process of eating food, how these animals prepare it, and have not fully considered the question of what dolphins eat. Presumably, these smart animals created their own civilization, which is not yet possible to understand, but much is already known, which is described below.

What do dolphins eat from the first days of life?

The dolphin mother feeds her cubs for the first time six hours after birth. The feeding process takes place shallow under water. Since the baby does not have soft lips, he cannot suckle on his own. Milk enters his mouth in a strong jet by injection. In the very first days of its life, a baby dolphin receives mother's milk up to eight times in an hour, this lasts a whole day. Then the intervals between feedings gradually increase.

Dolphin milk is nutritious, it contains about 33% fat and 7% protein. Water and lactose make up close to 58%. Eating such food, the little dolphin grows rapidly, builds up a thick layer of fat, at the age of one and a half years it begins to try fish for the first time and gradually begins to get its own food.

What do dolphins like to eat in the seas and oceans?

In their habitats, in the seas and waters of the oceans, dolphins try to be where the fish are found. In food, they are very picky, they don’t have to eat, they prefer only a certain type of food.

It is not worth talking about the sense of taste, because very little is known about it. But knowing the features of the brain, cranial nerves, one can guess about some of the taste sensations of animals and what dolphins eat. After all, they prefer only a certain type of fish. Our scientists conducted experiments and proved that dolphins have taste buds on their tongue, which means they definitely have taste sensations.

The dolphin eats fish in large quantities. During the day he eats a lot of it. Fish is his favorite food. This includes almost all types of marine fish: horse mackerel and herring, mackerel, saury and hake, flounder, mullet, anchovy. In addition to the above, squid, mollusks and crustaceans are a favorite delicacy.

The amount of food needed by adult animals is estimated at 4-5% of body weight, for nursing mothers - about 8%. It is known that beluga whales need 25-30 kg of fish per day, bottlenose dolphins daily food intake is 10-15 kg of fish products.

Due to the fact that dolphins are considered hunters, when feeding in dolphinariums, it is necessary to make sure that food (prey) can move. But in captivity they are accustomed to frozen products. The favorite food for dolphins in this habitat is squid and fish.

Dolphins have a wide range of sounds. There are several dozen of them, they are carried far into the sea and this helps animals communicate with each other. These are moans, squeaks, whistles, clicks, chirps... You might ask, what sound do dolphins make when they eat? While eating, a sound is made - meow.

How do dolphins get food?

Dolphin foraging strategies are varied. Most hunting takes place in daytime, only when there is a shortage of fish, it is necessary to hunt at night. Not the whole flock participates in night fishing, but only some individuals, catching on seabed lead night image life.

While hunting on the high seas, a herd of dolphins tries to surround and compact it. Then they go into it one by one and saturate themselves with food. When food is taken close to the coast, the animals drive their trophy into shallow water, closer to land. They sometimes hunt large fish alone, while with their tail they throw their prey over the water, catch it in their mouths or jam it.

Dolphins are considered good hunters. They have a special structure of fins and skin, as well as a streamlined body shape. Thanks to these features, anaphylls can swim very quickly, not yielding even to the most nimble inhabitants of the sea and ocean water spaces. The maximum speed is up to 40 km per hour, the diving depth of some species of dolphins is about 260 meters. Probably, everyone knows their jumps, in the horizontal direction they are able to "fly" about 9 meters, in the vertical direction - about 5 meters.

The most amazing facts about the life of dolphins

Incredible but true romantic animal fact: scientists who studied dolphins saw how males present gifts to their chosen ones in order to earn favor with themselves. The bouquet was ordinary seaweed.

The dolphin's cerebral cortex has twice as many convolutions as a human's.

Scientists have noticed that there are close bonds between dolphins in a flock. They carefully treat the elderly, relatives, do not leave the wounded and sick in trouble. The female dolphin comes to the aid of another female if there are difficulties during childbirth.

The dolphin is one of the most mysterious and interesting mammals living on our planet. It has been known since ancient times that these mammals can save drowning people and disperse the oculi that gather near a person.

In particular, dolphins love children. The main advantages of this species of mammals are their benevolence, sociability or the desire to establish any contact with a person. Today we will discuss the topic of where do dolphins live what they eat and how captivity weakens them.

How and where do dolphins live?

The habitat of dolphins can be called the places where they live. Their place of residence can be found in any area the globe. Here, everything will depend on the type of dolphin, some of them can only live in certain places. One type of dolphin is bottlenose dolphin or simply big dolphin.

Bottlenose dolphins are very common and can be observed in many places. Enough a large number of bottlenose dolphin is found in the waters of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, they can be seen in such seas as the Mediterranean, Red and, of course, Black. The habitats of various species of dolphins can be close to coastline, or directly in the shelf zone of the ocean.

Migration of dolphins, which is associated with the search for an additional source of food, seems to be a frequent phenomenon. In the same case, if in any area there is enough food for these mammals, then they take root there for a very long time.

For example, consider bottlenose dolphins. They are almost always close to the coastline and rarely migrate. It depends on the amount of food near the shore, and most often it is there in great abundance. Bottlenose dolphins are exactly the type of dolphins that many people are used to imagining. Bottlenose dolphins can often be seen near the coastline, and this type of dolphin can also be seen in almost all dolphinariums. Many people who do not think about this issue may get the impression that all dolphins live exactly like bottlenose dolphins, but this is an erroneous opinion.

In fact, many dolphins are subject to migration, especially those that live in the ocean shelf and have a completely different habitat. Most often, they travel in flocks and choose the right routes to find the right water temperature and enough food for themselves. Dolphins have the ability to swim hundreds of kilometers to find a source of food.

Video plot

Dolphin nutrition

Most often, dolphins look for fish of such breeds as food, such as:

• mackerel
• mullet
• cod
• herring, etc.

Sometimes, when there is no fish, they feed on squid. The diet of dolphins will depend entirely on what kind of fish is available in the area, as well as in what season they migrated here.

Dolphins can live not only in various seas and oceans, but also "their habitat", there may be captivity, i.e. various dolphinariums. Never before has man been presented with so many opportunities for open communication with these mammals. Here you can touch them, feed them and, of course, swim with them. But people, most often, simply do not understand how dolphins themselves suffer in these conditions, because many of them were caught and thus torn out of their natural habitat.

Dolphins are quite smart and have a high level of intelligence, which is very difficult to develop in captivity. Scientists have long shown a lot of evidence that keeping dolphins in captivity causes them great suffering and greatly reduces their life expectancy. So, in the wild, a dolphin can live up to 50-60 years, and in captivity, its life expectancy will be reduced to 30 years.

Currently, many organizations have been created that promote the protection of dolphins and are ardent opponents of all existing dolphinariums.

Now you know how and where do dolphins live! We hope that the information provided was of interest to you.

1.Dolphins have long been people's favorites due to their high intelligence.

Dolphins are truly considered the most intelligent animals in the world. Also, dolphins are the most popular and most amazing animals among all kinds of marine animals.

2. Images of dolphins were found in the city of Petra in Jordan. This city was founded in 312 BC. This means that dolphins have been “cooperating” with humans for quite a long time. Also, figurines of dolphins were found in the desert of Jordan. It is surprising that this country is far from the habitat of these animals.

3. In ancient Greece, killing a dolphin was considered sacrilege and punishable by death. The Greeks considered them "hieros ichthys", which means "sacred fish".

4. The statue of Apollo at Delphi had the image of this animal.

5. In ancient Rome, it was believed that dolphins carry souls to the "Isles of the Blessed." Images of these animals have been found on the hands of Roman mummies, presumably to ensure their safe passage to the afterlife.

bottlenose dolphin

6. Ocean beauties- bottlenose dolphins, they never cease to amaze the world, they are the kindest and most sympathetic creatures on the planet. Bottlenose dolphins are the most studied species of dolphins. Probably, the reason for this was their natural friendliness, ingenuity and easy learning. People always manage to quickly establish contact with them.

7. They live in the warm waters of the oceans. The diet of the bottlenose dolphin is fish, squid and small inhabitants of the ocean depths.

8. The bottlenose dolphin is a very compassionate creature. A case in point occurred in New Zealand in 2004. Four lifeguards were attacked by a great white shark 100 meters from the shore. A flock of bottlenose dolphins protected people from a predator that sensed the victim for 40 minutes. There is no explanation for this fact of kindness and compassion on the part of animals.

9. Scientists believe that a few hundred years ago, dolphins were much smaller than they are now.

10. Dolphins have teeth but don't use them to chew because their jaws aren't overgrown with muscles. They are designed exclusively for catching prey, which is subsequently simply swallowed whole.

white-faced dolphin

11. White-faced dolphins are inhabitants of temperate waters. They mainly live in the coastal zone and feed on bottom fish. Most often, this species of dolphins is found off the coast of Norway, where fishing is open for them.

12. White-faced dolphins have characteristic thick teeth, which sometimes scare people. However, they should not be afraid, because they only eat shellfish, fish and crustaceans. For humans, these animals are not at all dangerous, but can only cause harm through negligence during communication. Otherwise, these cute creatures are as good-natured as other members of the family.

13. Many scientists tend to think that dolphins are sentient beings, which have been developing in parallel with humanity since the appearance of life on the planet. They have their own language and hierarchy, their brain activity is strikingly different from that of all other animals and fish and cannot be fully studied.

14. Research scientists have proven that dolphins lived on land before adapting to water. When studying their fins, scientists discovered that they actually formed and previously looked like paws and fingers. Therefore, perhaps our closest relatives are these marine life.

15. About 49 million years ago, the ancestors of dolphins moved into the water.

white-bellied dolphins

16. There is a species of black dolphins. In fact, it is more correct to call these animals the white-bellied or Chilean dolphin. Unusual name dolphins got due to a rather variegated color: the fins and belly of mammals are white, and the rest of the body is painted in gray-black. Currently, this dolphin is considered the smallest of all cetaceans. In length, they reach only 170 centimeters. This type of dolphin has been little studied. According to some reports, animals prefer to live in shallow water, they are often seen in the mouths of rivers, where salt water mixes with fresh water. Scientists still cannot come to a conclusion regarding the population size of this species. Some believe that there are about 4,000 black dolphins, while others speak with confidence about the figure - 2,000 individuals.

17. These animals live along the Chilean coast. Experts say that this species is generally not prone to migration and lives in the places of birth.

Common dolphins

18. Unfortunately, black dolphins are on the verge of extinction, although they have not yet been officially protected by law. Huge damage to their population is caused by fishermen, as animals regularly fall into their nets, dying there.

19. According to scientists, each dolphin has its own name, which its relatives call it. All of them make peculiar sounds that are difficult for the human ear to catch, but in their environment one individual differs from another precisely in its peculiar timbre and manner of communicating.

20. Experiments conducted with the participation of dolphins usually baffle researchers, since they cannot form a definite opinion about the level of their intelligence. Of course, dolphins are very smart and hide secrets that humanity will study for a long time to come.

killer whale

21. Most great view dolphins are considered killer whales. Their bodies can be up to 30 feet long. In addition, killer whales are considered one of the most ferocious killers in the world.

22. Currently, 43 species of dolphins are known. 38 of them are inhabitants of the seas and oceans, and the remaining 5 are river.

23. They have among themselves specific similarities, such as live birth, nutrition with milk, the presence of respiratory organs, smooth skin and much more.

24. Also, dolphins of different species have their own characteristics. Some animals have an elongated nose, while others, on the contrary, are depressed. They may differ in color and body weight.

25. It is very interesting how dolphins can communicate with each other and detect prey. The researchers found that these creatures have their own sounds for different life situations, and they are divided into sonar and communicative. Sonar signals are used by them to detect prey, and communicative signals are used for communication within the family.

26. Female dolphins help each other produce offspring. All other relatives at this time carry out protection.

27. American scientists have created a device through which they are trying to recognize the meaning of dolphin signals. Not so long ago, it was found that the ultrasound emitted by dolphins has a beneficial effect on human health and even contributes to the treatment of certain diseases.

28. Dolphins do not have a sense of smell, but they have a sense of taste and, like humans, are able to distinguish between sweet, sour, bitter and salty tastes.

29. Dolphins breathe air. They do not have gills like fish do, but they do have lungs and a blowhole on their upper body. The same blowhole whales and dolphins use to make various sounds.

30. Most dolphins cannot see objects in front of them. Dolphins and even killer whales, when looking at objects, lie on their side and examine them with the help of one or the other eye.

31. The interaction of a dolphin and a person always has a beneficial effect on the psychological state of the latter, therefore, such a treatment as dolphin therapy appeared. In most cases, such therapy helps children with certain communication disorders. Autism, attention deficit disorder and even cerebral palsy can be treated with these amazing animals.

32. Dolphins interact well with people, can be trained, they can be easily tamed. These animals were trained for military purposes by the two largest world powers of the twentieth century - the USA and the USSR. Dolphins have been trained to find mines, rescue sailors from sunken ships, and even destroy enemy submarines, unfortunately, dying during this operation.

33. average speed, with which the dolphin swims 5-12 kilometers per hour. It depends on the types and situations. Some of the fastest dolphins can move at speeds up to 32 km/h.

34. Dolphins can dive up to 304 meters deep.

35. Dolphins are the only animals that give birth to their babies tail first. Otherwise, the babies would drown.

Pilot whale dolphin

36. Scientists have found that bottlenose dolphins make 17 different sounds that they use to communicate with each other. Interestingly, 5 sounds are also understood by other members of the family - pilot whales and white barrels.

37. Dolphin sonars are the best in nature, surpassing several times bats and similar devices created by humans.

38. Dolphins have two stomachs: one is for storing food, and the other is used for digestion.

39. Despite the fact that the average lifespan of dolphins is only 20 years, some centenarians can live up to 50 years. It has even been recorded that one of the oldest dolphins lived for 61 years.

40. If there is not enough food in their area of ​​residence, dolphins may migrate to other places. New habitats depend not only on the availability of food on them, but also on the temperature of the water, which should not be lower than the temperature of their bodies.

41. A dolphin weighing 120 kilograms needs to eat 33 kilograms of fish per day, while these animals do not get fat and never become obese.

42. These marine animals hunt only in packs, and they cannot live alone either. Dolphin families sometimes number about 100 individuals. Thanks to these abilities, the animal is never left without plentiful food.

43. Since dolphins live in a community, its problems are not alien to each individual. If a sick or weak dolphin appears in the family, then all relatives help him and push him to the surface, giving him the opportunity to take a breath of fresh air.

44. Dolphins use echolocation to hunt. Their hearing is arranged in such a way that animals can determine the number of objects, their volume and the degree of danger from the reflected signal. Dolphins can stun their prey with high frequency sounds, paralyzing them.

45. Scientists suggest that echolocation is evolutionary process, which animals have acquired relatively recently.

pink dolphin

46. ​​The pink dolphin is considered a unique species and lives in the Amazon.

47. Dolphins swim in circles and always watch with one eye so that predators do not sneak up on them. After a certain period of time, they begin to swim in the opposite direction and observe with the other eye.

48. Ordinary human hearing is unable to catch the dolphin roll call. Humans perceive sounds up to 20 kilohertz, while dolphins emit signals at frequencies up to 200 kilohertz. Scientists have found that in the speech of these animals there are more than 180 different whistles. Dolphin sounds add up to syllables, words and even phrases. And representatives of dolphins from different regions each whistling in their own dialect.

49. These marine animals can jump to a height of about 6 meters.

50. Dolphins are highly revered among many peoples. In some countries, people are seriously concerned about the issue of captive dolphins. In order to protect animals, relevant laws are even being adopted. Laws against keeping dolphins in captivity have been passed in Costa Rica, Chile and Hungary. Not so long ago, India joined these countries. Hindus generally consider dolphins to be individuals, and therefore they, just like people, should have rights. This means that their exploitation in captivity is unacceptable.