DOLPHIN

  Dolphin

Dolphins are highly intelligent marine mammals and are part of the family of toothed whales that includes orcas and pilot whales. They are found worldwide, mostly in shallow seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores.

Orcas / Killer Whale

Pilot Whale

CLASSIFICATION

KINGDOM:	Animalia
PHYLUM:	Chordata
CLASS:	Mammalia
ORDER:	Cetacea
SUBORDER:	Odontoceti
FAMILY:	Delphinidae
GENUS SPECIES:	Tursiops truncatus

GENERAL FEATURES

Weight and Size

Dolphins vary in weight and size. There are small species as the Maui dolphin, which measures on average 1.7 meters in length and weighs about 50 kilograms, and there are large species that reach 5 to 8 meters in length like the Orca (Orcinus orca) which, by the way, is the largest and heaviest extant dolphin.

Maui Dolphin

Skin Color

• Most species have a gray or bluish color on the dorsal area and white or light gray in the ventral area.
• However, not all species have the same color pattern described above. The Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) has a pink color on its skin, therefore is known as the “pink dolphin.” Also, some species have stripes or spots of different sizes, colors, and shapes.

Pink Amazon River Dolphin

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE 

LIFE CYCLE
Gestation
Gestation is when the mother carries the child in their womb. It takes about 10-11 months  for the baby dolphin to be ready to be born.

Birth
Adult dolphins give birth and breed their babies. When born, the babies come out tail-first and are immediately strong swimmers, then they have to go to the surface to breath air. They are nursed for 1 and a half to 2 years long.

Childhood
Once weaned, the young dolphin stays in the care of their mother for 3-8 more years. When they are 6 months old they can eat seafood, which consists of mainly fish and crustaceans.

Puberty
When the dolphin reaches the age of puberty, from 3-8 years of age, they start trying to find a mate. The mating period is in spring and autumn, and lasts about 12 months (1 year). When they have found a mate they have a baby together and continue doing so, having a calf every 1 and a half years (on average). They live for about 30 years on average, but are being hurt by humans and numbers are dwindling.

Family Life

Dolphins have a very sociable life and are very intelligent. They live in pods of up to 40 members and even some larger pods like schools or herds. Most groups are split into subgroups. Some of the main ones are

•the nuclear group - for one male and one female,

•the nursery group - for young dolphins and

•the bachelor group - for young male dolphins.

DIET & EATING HABIT

• Adult bottlenose dolphins eat approximately 4% to 6% of their body weight in food per day. A nursing mother's daily intake is considerably higher — about 8%.
• Dolphins do not chew their food. Before eating large fishes, bottlenose dolphins shake them or rub them on the ocean floor until suitable-size pieces break off. They also strip meat from spiny fishes, reducing the chance of injury from sharp spines.

UNIQUENESS

Echolocation is a sensory sonar system that dolphins use for communication and for locating things in their environment.

Dolphins release a focused beam of clicking sounds (sound waves) and then listen to the echo. From this they can determine the following about an object (such as a fish).

osize

oshape

odistance

ospeed

odirection

ointernal structure (depending on the object)

SOURCE;

https://seaworld.org/en/animal-info/animal-bytes/mammals/bottlenose-dolphin