Interesting Facts about
Dolphins
With so much to know about
dolphins, it is often the fun facts that people really
enjoy and they are really good for school projects. Do
you want to know how dolphins sleep? The fact is
dolphins cannot actually sleep because they need to be
conscious to breathe. Instead of going into a deep sleep
where they would suffocate themselves, they often left
half of their brain sleep at one time and then the other
half at another time. In this way, dolphins are able to
"sleep" about eight hours per day.
Here are more interesting
facts about dolphins.
Dolphins as we know are
predators when it comes to fish and other foods. But how
much do they really eat per day? That really depends on
the season and how much food is available in the area in
which they live. If they are in an area where fish with
high fat content are readily available then they may eat
less of mackerel and herring then if they were to just
eat squid. So to get the same calorie intake they need
to eat more squid. On average they eat between 4% and 9%
of its body weight in fish so if they weigh about 250kg
they will need to eat about 10 to 22.5 kg per day of
fish.
Another common question that
people ask is about how long dolphins live. The maximum
age that dolphins live is between 40 and 50 years old
which is much longer than people expect. Although it is
true that depending on where they live they may only
live to about 25 to 30 years. There are some places such
as the Indian Ocean where they only live between 10 and
14 years on average. The warmer the water the longer
they will live.
Another interesting fact on
dolphins is how deep they can dive. In an amazing study
one bottlenose dolphin named Tuffy was shown to dive as
far as 300 meters! Most of the dolphins do not dive this
deeply though and live in fairly shallow water. In
Florida for example, most dolphins live in water as
shallow as 2 meters. There are some other dolphin
species such as a pilot whale that can dive to at least
600 meters and a sperm whale that can dive as far as 900
meters, but most dolphins as we know them are not able
to dive this deeply.
Finally, one last burning question that leads to an
interesting fact about dolphins is whether or not they
drink salt water. It is assumed that dolphins drink
ocean water because they are in it all day long.
However, the water is much too salty for them to drink,
much like with humans. If they drank it they would
actually use more water trying to get rid of it. Most of
their water comes from their food such as fish and
squid, but some of their water comes from their fat
which they metabolize to make the water release into
their own system. They actually don't need much water
because their kidneys adapt to retaining the water they
do get from food and their own fat.
Interesting facts about
dolphins
1. Dolphins are mammals; they nurse their young under
the water from mammary glands situated within mammary
slits. The baby folds its tongue lengthwise to form a
straw and the mother squirts milk into its mouth.
2. Dolphins can swim up to 300 m. below the surface of
the ocean, although they are mainly shallow divers.
3. Dolphins can stay under water up to 15 minutes
although the average dive lasts only a few minutes.
4. Dolphins use a technique called echolocation to find
food and navigate. They produce a series of clicking
sounds which echo back off objects in the water, much
like bats which use echolocation to catch insects in the
dark. Dolphins also have the ability to stun fish with
the clicks they make, making hunting easier.
5. Dolphins are social beings which live in groups and
cooperate among each other for activities like getting
food and calf rising.
6. There are 32 species of ocean dolphins and 5 species
of river dolphins.
7. The largest dolphin is the "killer whale" (orca),
which can grow to 6.1 meters long.
8. The most well known dolphin is the "bottlenose
dolphin" which can grow to 2.5-2.8 meters.
9. Dolphins are warm-blooded and their internal
temperature is around 36 degrees. Dolphins have a thin
layer of blubber below their skin, insulating them from
the surrounding water.
10. The average bottlenose dolphin brain weighs
1500-1600 grams, while average human brain weighs
1200-1300g.
11. Dolphins can make a unique signature whistle that
may help individual dolphins recognize each other or
perform any other kind of communication still unknown.
12. Bottlenose dolphins can swim 5 to 12 kilometers per
hour, although they can reach up to 32 km/h
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