Odontoceti, common name Dolphin are cetaceans with small teeth and curved mouths. They can get as big as up to 32 feet, and weigh up to 6 tons. The biggest dolphin being the orca, which can grow over 30 feet long. But while there is large dolphins, there is also small ones. The smallest being the Maui dolphin which is only 5 feet long.
While they are high on the food chain, their average life span is unknown. In every ocean there is 36 species of dolphins. Most dolphins do live in oceans, but there are a few dolphins that live in freshwater rivers and streams. An example of that is the Amazon river dolphin and the South Asian river dolphin.
Dolphins feed on fish and squid, like bats, they track using echolocation. Using that technique, they use the sound waves and get the information they need. Like their preys location, shape, and size. When a bottlenosed dolphin uses echolocation it can produce up to a thousand clicking noises per secound.
Dolphins live in pods that can number up to 12 or more. They are very social mammals that communicate using whistles, clicks, and squeaks. Scientists still debate on whether they have a language like us humans. Dolphins are mammals, so the do nurse their young and have warm blood. They usually have more then one mate and produce one offspring that will, depending on the species, stay with the mother for up to six years.
They are sleek swimmers that can be as fast as 18 miles an hour. They frolic and leap out of water whether it's to shed parasites, communicate, and sometimes just for fun.
For many centuries people have hunted dolphins. For both their meat and blubber. But now one of their biggest threat is getting accidentally stuck in commercial fishing nets when they come up to breath. When they get stuck in these nets they usually end up drowning, leading to death. But for maine dolphins, climate change has proposed a threat. The warming temperatures making their primary food sources move to deeper color water. Even worse, marine heatwaves, also a because of climate change, has appeared to effect dolphins rates and ability to survive.
