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| This page is Dedicated to Chelsea and Dusty, who love the dolphins as much as I do. |
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| Dolphins touch our hearts in ways we perhaps don't understand. They have much to teach us about our world, and scientists everywhere are watching and listening. They're discovering where the many kinds of dolphins live and travel; how dolphin families and societies form; how these marine mammals communicate with one another; and sadly, how humans adversely affect their health and mortality. |
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Dolphins are mammals, not fish. They are warm blooded like man, and give birth to one baby called a calf at a time. At birth a bottlenose dolphin calf is about 90-130 cms long and will grow to approx. 4 metres, living up to 40 years.They are highly sociable animals, living in pods which are fairly fluid, with dolphins from other pods interacting with eachother from time to time.
Dolphins use their powerful tail flukes in an up and down motion to move through the water. They also use their tails when hunting, hitting a fleeing fish up into the air with their tail, stunning it, then scooping the fish up when it falls back into the water.
Just how powerful their tail muscles are is demonstrated here.
Their pectoral flippers are used to steer them through the water, and they also use them to stroke one another, increasing the social bond between them. Dolphin "friends" may swim along face to face touching flippers. Dolphins that appear to be closely bonded may swim in synchrony, twisting, turning and swimming in perfect harmony together.
Dolphins breathe through their blowhole located at the top of their head. A dolphin may empty and refill its lungs in less than a fifth of a second. As the dolphin breathes the air leaves the blowhole at speeds of over 100mph. Complex nerve endings around the blowhole sense pressure changes so the dolphin knows exactly when the blowhole is in or nearing the air and can be opened.
The dolphin's eyes produce a special slippery secretion which protects the eyes from foreign objects and water friction. To sleep, a dolphin must shut down only half of its brain, as its breathing is under voluntary control. Dolphins take short cat-naps, floating just below the surface, then slowly rising to breathe. Often dolphins are very active during night time, for some this is their main feeding time.
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