Dolphins are small-toothed cetaceans easily recognizable by their curved mouths, which give them a permanent “smile.
Our best friends of the sea, the dolphins have always been a great fascination to humans.
They are friendly, happy and social animals and have been positively noted for their playful nature, intelligence and occasional help to humans, whether it is fishing or rescuing their lives! Here’s 10 facts about dolphins that you might not know.
1. Dolphins are the only animals that give birth with the baby coming out tail first; the calf would drown if it was the other way.
2. Just a tablespoon of water in a dolphin’s lung could drown it, while a human would drown after two tablespoons.
3. The blowhole of a dolphin is actually an adapted nose which has moved to the top of its head.
4. Dolphins can see with sound, they use their tell-tale clicks which travel long distances and bounce off of objects. This allows them to know how far away the object is and the shape, density, movement and texture of it.
5. Dolphin sonar is the best within nature and superior to bats sonar and man-made sonar.
6. “The Cove” is an academy award winning documentary about the treatment of dolphins in Japan. It discusses cruelty towards dolphins and the strong risks of mercury poisoning from eating dolphin.
7. Dolphins were thought to be a lot smaller hundreds of years ago, it is also thought that echolocation is an evolutionary process and that dolphins haven’t always had this ability.
8. Dolphins do not use their 100 teeth for eating, rather for catching the fish which they then just swallow whole. They actually don’t have jaw muscles for chewing!
9. If you killed a dolphin during the time of Ancient Greece it was considered sacrilegious and was punishable by death. They Greeks called them “hieros ichthys” which means sacred fish.
10. It has been recognized by scientists that dolphins give themselves names. They develop their own individual whistles and even after the tone of the whistle is changed the dolphins still recognized theirs and other dolphins’ names.
