It’s time to learn about the incredible, the amazing, the most wonderful creatures, Dolphins and Whales! So let’s get the facts. We hopefully all know that dolphins and whales are mammals, animals that breath air, give birth to live babies, (not eggs) feed their babies milk, have hair or fur, (dolphins have a little hair on their snout when they are first born) and are warm blooded. But did you know that Bottlenosed dolphins have 88-100 teeth? Now that’s a lot of teeth. Here are some other interesting facts. Dolphins eat their fish whole. (No chewing.) And dolphins don’t have to drink ocean water; they get their water from the fish they eat.
Dolphins can sort of see in the dark; they use something called eco-location. How does it work? The dolphin makes a sound. It bounces off an object like a fish or a wall, and the sound comes back to the dolphin, telling it where the thing is.
But a dolphin can see, just not in dark water, and a dolphin is color blind. Dolphins’ herd (group of dolphins) can have 200 members. Dolphins weigh between 100 to 20,000 pounds. You want to know how to tell a boy bottlenosed dolphin from a girl bottlenosed dolphin? You look at their belly. A boy has a mark like a exclamation point on it’s belly. A girl has a mark like a division sign.
Scientists believe that dolphins’ ancestors were furry four-legged land mammals. If you look at a dolphin’s skeleton, you’ll see that it’s probably true. Dolphins have five finger bones in each flipper. And they have little extra bones where legs might have been. And another thing you might see is that a dolphin has no bone in its tail. There are over 30 different kinds of dolphins.
So a dolphin must have ears, because they use eco-location. But where are they? They are little holes right behind a dolphin’s eyes. You want to know how to tell a dolphin from a porpoise? Well, a dolphin has pointy teeth while a porpoise has flat teeth. And a porpoise’s dorsal fin is sort of triangle and a dolphin’s dorsal fin is more curved. Now that we’re talking about porpoises, did you know that porpoise means “pig of the sea” because it’s so chubby?
A dolphin uses its tail to swim, its flippers to steer, and its dorsal fin to keep them from spinning around while they swim. A dolphin doesn’t have a sense of smell, because if you think about it, a dolphin’s blow hole is like a nostril on the top of their head. Dolphins and toothed whales have one blowhole and baleen whales have two.
Bottlenosed dolphins that live in the ocean are bigger than bottlenosed that live near the shore. Baby spotted dolphins don’t have spots. As they get older they get more and more spots until they’re one big blur.
Spinner dolphins are the only ones who spin when they jump. That’s probably why they’re called that. And there are more common dolphins than any kind of dolphins. Striped dolphins look like common dolphins except they have a stripe.
Now let’s talk about things whales and dolphins do a lot. Porpoising is when dolphins leap out of the water and practically fly. (Big whales don’t normally porpoise, because they’re too big and heavy). Breaching is when dolphins or whales throw themselves into the air and fall back into the water. Log-tailing is when whales go upside down in the water, stick their tail in the air and wag it then smack it on the water.
A killer whale’s dorsal fin can be 6 feet tall! (A killer whale is also called an orca). Dolphins have 8-250 teeth! Some people consider toothed whales (like an orca, pilot whale or beluga whale) dolphins.
You may think that dolphins only live in the ocean. It is true that ocean whales and dolphins will die if they are in fresh water, but there are such things as river dolphins. One example of river dolphins is the Amazon River dolphins. Get ready to learn a lot about Amazon River dolphins. Amazon River dolphins are also called botos. Botos are gray when they are born, and get pinker when they get older. Ones that live in dark muddy water are pinker than botos that live in clear water, because botos in clear water get something like a suntan, since they get more sun. Botos also get pinker when they are more active. A boto is very flexible. It can turn its head 180 degrees from side to side. It can paddle one flipper forward while it paddles the other one backwards. During the rainy season, the rain forest floods and botos swim through the trees, chasing fish.
Marine dolphins can’t get pregnant when they are still making milk for their calves. That’s because their pregnancy lasts almost a year. Amazon River dolphins’ pregnancy doesn’t last that long. Botos also don’t get stranded very often, because they are strong and flexible and can wriggle themselves out.
Here are some more whale facts: The fastest whale is an orca. Gray whales dive down and scoop up a mouthful of mud, send it out of their baleen and eat what’s left. Humpback whales make a bubble net and trap tiny fish, then they lounge at them. They make noises that kind of sound like singing, and some people actually listen to humpback whales singing. Humpback whales have bumps all over their heads.
Dolphins have sensitive skin. Unfortunately, dolphins’ and whales’ skin cracks when it gets too dry.
Baby dolphins are born tail first. If they are born head first, they usually die. And dolphins rarely have twins. If they do, both babies or even the mom normally die.
I hope you’ve learned a lot from this book. And as you can see, dolphins and whales really are wonderful creatures.
