The dolphin is an amazing animal that fascinates every person who encounters it. Dolphins are considered the most intelligent animals in the world. Also, dolphins are the most popular and most amazing animals among all marine animal species.
Fact number one.
There are forty-three species of dolphins in the world. Their closest relatives are orcas, whales and sea cows. Between each other dolphins speak their own language. They communicate with each other with the help of sound signals of different frequencies, which we hear as a clicking sound.
Fact number two.
Dolphins are half asleep and half awake. The fact is that the brain of these mammals consists of two halves, just like in humans. When one hemisphere sleeps, the other remains active and helps the animal navigate in the water. At the same time, one dolphin’s eye is open and the other is closed. This feature is due to the fact that mammals breathe air. They periodically need to rise to the surface of the water for the next breath.
Fact number three.
A dolphin is the only mammal whose birth literally begins with its tail, not its head. Each animal has its own name. The name is assigned by the adults at birth. In experiments, the same dolphin always responded to the scientists’ recorded whistle-signal signifying the name.
Fact number four.
Despite belonging to the marine or river type, the vision of these animals is weak, but the hearing is very well developed. With the help of sounds and they communicate, it has been proved for a long time. And in recent times, scientists were able to count the number of these sound signals, it was about fourteen thousand different signals, which are a kind of «words. And these signals are divided into sonar and communicative. Sonar signals are used by them to detect prey, and communicative signals are used to communicate within the family.
Fact number five.
Animals help each other during the hunt. They go in search of prey in large groups: together they surround the fish in a ring, thereby preventing it from swimming away. Then they take turns diving for their prey.
Fact number six.
Dolphins have teeth but do not use them to chew because their jaws have not developed muscles. Dolphins’ teeth are designed solely to catch prey, which they then simply swallow whole.
Fact number seven.
Dolphins are distinguished by their care for their congeners. They will never abandon a weakened companion. They will do their best to nurse and release the poor fellow.
Fact number eight.
Dolphins have an excellent appetite. In a day an adult dolphin eats fish up to about a quarter of its weight. If there is not enough food in their area of residence, dolphins can migrate to other places. New places depend not only on the availability of food, but also on the temperature of the water, which must be at least body temperature dolphins.
Fact number nine.
Dolphins have a longer gestation period than humans. They carry their babies for ten to eighteen months. The cubs can be born as small as fifty centimeters or larger. When a dolphin is about to give birth, she begins to move, arching her tail and back. Other dolphins surround her in a tight ring, trying to help and protect her. As soon as the baby is born, he is pushed upward so that his lungs open and he can take a breath of air. He recognizes his mother by her voice, as she begins to whistle ten times more often than usual immediately after birth. In the first few months, the adult dolphin does not move away from his baby, if he is hungry, the baby begins to cry, just like in humans. All mammalian cubs sleep a lot in the first months after birth. But not dolphins. At first, the baby dolphin does not know what sleep is at all, it begins to sleep only in the second month after birth. The first year of life, the baby lives next to his mother, who not only feeds him, but also educates him. Then the mother begins to teach him how to get food and communicate. The dolphin grows in a female herd, while the males live separately.
Fact number ten.
Sharks are afraid of dolphins. At the same time, dolphins, having such a significant advantage in the fight against sharks, are not the initiators of the attack on them. On the contrary, most often toothy predator attacks first. And she is very happy to eat meat of the collective mammal, fought off his flock for various reasons. But if the dolphins noticed the aggressive actions of the bloodthirsty predator, it is already in trouble. The dolphin group immediately surrounds its offender and begins to push her and beat her with their powerful beaks. Dolphins, being highly evolved and intelligent creatures, always aim at the most vulnerable place of the shark — the gill slits, eyes, stomach. Under the blows the shark loses strength, can not resist and dies. The entire pack of dolphins easily kill the shark. All because they are much faster and more maneuverable.
The World Whale and Dolphin Day is celebrated annually on the twenty-third of July. This day was established in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission.
