🐬Dolphins🐬

Dolphins are aquatic mammals that are related to whales and porpoises. They are cute, intelligent and sociable animals that behave like dogs(in ways that they play and create games). There are over 45 species of dolphin in the world.

Appearance

While there are several species of dolphins in the world like the Amazon River Dolphin, the Bottlenose Dolphin or the Striped Dolphin, traditional dolphins that are most commonly viewed have a thick beak and a curved mouth. This makes it seem like dolphins are always smiling, even though the may not be. To describe their whole body, they have smooth skin, flippers, a dorsal fin and a long snout that has over 100 teeth inside. They also have one blowhole on their head that has a flap to reveal a pair of nostrils that dolphins use when they surface.

Habitat
Dolphins live in all oceans other than the Arctic and Antarctic waters as the temperatures of the water are too cold for them. Some dolphins also settle in freshwater rivers as well, like Amazon River Dolphins or Boto. However some also live in brackish waters across the coast.

Diet
A dolphin's diet consists of different species. While some dolphins eat fish like herring, cod or mackerel, some others eat squid or other cephalopod like octopus. Some other things they eat are shrimp or jellyfish.

Fun Facts

Male dolphins are called bulls, female dolphins are called cows and young dolphins are called calves. Calves stay alongside their mothers up to 3 years sometimes up to 8 years while dolphins live in schools or pods of up to 12 individuals. Also, dolphins sleep in shifts, which means that half of their brain may be asleep for some of the night and the other half may be asleep after that, but not both at once. This enables dolphins to keep swimming while their asleep. The Bottlenose Dolphin is often referred to as the 'King of Communication' as they are known for communicating well throughout the pod by using clicks, squeals and whistles made using the mouth like all other dolphins. Some natural dolphin behavior also may be jumping out of the water and snapping their jaws etc.