Dolphins – great creatures

Dolphins look like big fishes, but they are actually mammals. They belong to a large group of animals called whales.
There are two groups: true dolphins and river dolphins. True dolphins live throughout the world and the most widespread species are the common dolphin and the bottlenose dolphin. The River dolphins live in freshwater in South America and Asia. There are thirty-two species of dolphins.
Most dolphins are 2 to 3 meters long, but some species can reach a length of 4 meters.
A dolphin breathes through a single nostril, called a blowhole, on the top of its head.

Since 2017, the Commission on Extinct Animals of China has declared the Chinese river dolphin extinct. It is also known as baiji. It had an average overall length of 2 to 2.5 meters and weighed between 100 and 230 kilograms. Its body color was blue-gray on top and almost white underneath. Like bats, Chinese river dolphins used echolocation to navigate and to find prey. The dolphins usually traveled in pairs or in groups of up to ten. A female dolphin gave birth to a single calf after a gestation period of 10 to 11 months. During its first year, the young dolphin swam behind its mother or the mother carried it with her flipper.
Chinese river dolphins were found only in the Changjiang (Yangtze River) in China.
Some types of dolphin may live for 30 years.
Dolphins are intelligent and playful.

Amazing dolphins

Interesting facts
– Even very serious and deep injuries (such as, for example, shark bites), heal very quickly. Their bodies are restored to their original state.
– The dolphin, whom the sailors named Pelorus Jack, for some unknown reason for 14 years, constantly accompanied ships along the Cook Strait off the coast of New Zealand. He disappeared in 1912.
– Dolphins sleep with one open eye. They never stop watching and listening to what is happening around them. Their right and left hemispheres of the brain sleep alternately so that the animals can breathe during rest.
– Dolphins have the ability to see themselves in the mirror and admire their beauty.
– In addition to humans, only dolphins, whales and monkeys can kill themselves.
– Dolphin’s nipples are in the anus – small dolphins insert their beaks into the hole and the mother squirts milk.
– By the way, dolphin is the only animal using the brain more actively than man.
– Dolphins have up to 230 teeth – more than any other mammal.
– Dolphins can swim at speeds up to 50 kilometers per hour.
– Dolphins give each other names.