Did you know?//Random facts book

Dolphins

1. There are 36 species of marine dolphins - living in nearly all aquatic environments, including oceans, coastal, estuarine and freshwater - and in temperatures ranging from less than 0°C to more than 30°C.

2. The Amazon river is home to four species of river dolphin that are found nowhere else on Earth.

3. Bottlenose dolphins are usually fairly slow swimmers, travelling at about 2 mph. However they can reach speeds of over 30 mph for brief periods!

4. They make a variety of sounds including whistles, clicks, squawks, squeaks, moans, barks, groans and yelps.

5. Bottlenose dolphins are one of the few species, along with apes and humans, that have the ability to recognise themselves in a mirror. This is considered 'reflective' of their intelligence.

6. Bottlenose dolphins sleep with one half of their brain at a time, and keep one eye open. It's believed they do this to keep an eye out for their group - to make sure they stick together - and to look out for predators like sharks.

7. To know where they are in relation to other objects and animals, dolphins use echolocation (a.k.a. biological sonar). After emitting a series of high-pitched clicks, they listen for the echoes to bounce off their surroundings. Based on these echoes, dolphins can judge where they are in space and determine the size and shape of nearby objects.

8. Dolphins have teeth, but they don't use their chompers to chew food. Instead, dolphins use their teeth to catch prey (fish, crustaceans, and squid) and swallow it whole.

9. They typically have one calf.

10. a dolphin's epidermis (outer layer of skin) can be sloughed off and replaced with new skin cells as often as every two hours. Because their skin regenerates so often, it stays smooth and, as most scientists believe, reduces drag as they swim.

11. Dolphins live in groups, called pods, that typically contain dozens or hundreds of dolphins. By swimming in a pod, dolphins work together to hunt prey, evade predators, and care for sick or injured members.

12. different pods can also merge, forming a superpod of more than 1000 dolphins. Superpods are typically temporary and occur in parts of the ocean with plentiful food.

13. The largest dolphin, the orca, can grow to be over 30 feet long.

14. The smallest, the Maui dolphin, is just five feet long.

15. Their average lifespan in the wild is 45-50 years.

16. Bottlenose dolphins can breach up to 16 feet out of the water, landing with a splash.

17. A dolphin pregnancy last between nine and 16 months.

18. All dolphins have conical-shaped teeth. A Risso's dolphin has 14 while a spinner dolphin can have 240.

19. Porpoises are smaller than dolphins; they are less than 2.5m (8ft) long. They are also characteristically chunkier than dolphins and have a small head, little or no beak, and a small triangular dorsal fin (except the finless porpoises!).

20. Dolphins are warm-blooded and have blubber to keep them warm.

21. The Killer Whale (also known as Orca) is actually a type of dolphin.

22. Female dolphins are called cows, males are called bulls and young dolphins are called calves.

That's all for today. Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while but I'll try and get back into it. I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day.

See you in the next chapter!

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