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Naja Animal: Dolphin Report by Felicia Ferentinos

Dolphin Report
Dolphins are carnivores which means that they only eat meat. The food that they eat are fish , sardines, herring, salmon, codfish, shrimp, squid, grouper and many other fish that live under the water. Dolphins work together as a team to get their food. Some dolphins were use clicking sounds to the herd to come join the feast. The dolphins will make the school of fish into a tight group then the dolphins were circle around the fish to keep the fish from getting away. Every dolphin takes a turn of getting a fish. Sometimes dolphins get their food by swimming near the surface. A bottlenose dolphin can whack a fish up into the air with their tails to send the fish soaring into the air. When the fish lands in the water again then it will be easy to catch the fish. A dolphins tooth is only used to grab the food. Dolphins always turn their food around then the dolphin will swallow the fish whole. The dolphin usually goes for the head first. Dolphins will also eat octopus to. Dolphins have very sharp teeth that are on the upper jaw and the lower jaw. Dolphins can crush their prey at very fast speed. Dolphins use a very special skill to find their prey they will use their sonar this can show the dolphin the size, the speed, the shape and the direction of the prey. A dolphins favorite prey is fish and squid. Dolphins are amazing predators. Bottlenose dolphins will rush up to the surface to grab a fish. Some dolphin species will feed on fish and cephalopods. Dolphins will also eat cuttlefish. Some Dolphins have a varied diet. A diet that includes squid, crabs, shrimp, lobsters, and rays. Dolphins will also take down sharks. Dolphins can be seen in every ocean in the world. Some dolphins usually live near cold waters but other dolphins spend their whole lives out in open oceans. Some dolphins can be found in tropical and temperate waters. They can usually be seen in the Mediterranean. Some dolphins can even be seen in the polar waters. Dolphins do not migrate in very long distances some

dolphins can migrate about hundred miles in a search of a meal. The dolphins that live in the freshwaters they are only to be found in very big rivers that are in Asia and in South America. Some dolphins like the Ganges River dolphins are very blind. This dolphin will use a long snout to look for food in the bottom of a river. Dolphins can be found in very warm oceans around the world. The real common place to look for dolphins is in the deep off shove waters. They can also be found in shallow waters. Some dolphin populations have a present in all year round. The Bottlenose dolphin lives near the coast and in the Northern Cape Hatteras to the Southern of Florida and the westward that is through the Gulf of Mexico. The dolphins other location is near the continental that is off coast of New Jersey. Bottlenose dolphins can also live in many different places of the life cycle which is responding or giving birth. A dolphins length is 1.7-2.4m. Their weight is up about 75kg. The biggest dolphin in the world is the killer whale it can grow about 23 feet (7 meters) long. The smallest dolphin is the Heaviside dolphin it can grow about 3, 5 feet (1, 2 meters) long. The weight of a killer whale is 4, 48 tons and (4, 55 tons). The height of the Heavisides dolphin can grow about 88 pounds (40 kilometers). The dolphins rather size is 1.2m (4ft) and 40kg (88lb). The Maui dolphin can grow about 9.5m (30ft) and 10 tons this also the weight of the killer whale too. The average length of the North American dolphins can grow about 13, 89 feet in a length. Some species can weigh about 50 to 200kg (110 to 440 lb).The bottlenose dolphin can grow about 12 feet (3. 7m) long. Sometimes their weight can be about 1,400 pounds (635 kg). The killer whale can grow about 3 feet long and 88 pounds. Dolphins can live about 25 years. A life span of a dolphin depends on the species. They can live about 20 and 90 years. The other life span of dolphins is also 12 or 80 years. The Bottlenose dolphin can live about 50 years. The killer whale can live about 80 years. The bigger dolphins have a longer life span then smaller dolphins do. Dolphins can also live about 50 years. Dolphins have two stomachs. One stomach is to in store food the second stomach is to digest. Dolphins are social animals they live in

a group called a pod it can hold about 10 to 50 animals. Some dolphins have schools which can hold about 100 and 2000 animals. These groups are very social with each other these groups will also have fun activities together, like surfacing, jumping and splashing each other. The typical dolphins behavior also includes breathing, tail-slapping, chin-slapping bow-riding and proposing. Dolphins are very fast mammals they can swim about 40km 1h. Dolphins are known to use both speed and their groups to catch their prey. When dolphins go to sleep then one hemisphere of their brain shuts down. The dolphin will remain conscious enough for the dolphin to breathe air and look for predators. Dolphins usually sleep in the ocean then they will sink then they would not be able to breathe. Because their body and their bones are very structure. This is how dolphins get more oxygen then humans do. Dolphins can float above the water about (25 centimeters). That is below the surface of the water. Every dolphin has sounds that can travel under the water it is called echolocation this is the kind of sound that bats can use to. This sound helps the dolphin locate, the size, speed and the shape of object, this bounces off something and then it returns back to the dolphin. Dolphins live and play in schools that can hold 5 hundred animals. Some dolphins can swim and roll in format. Dolphins can also help each other when one of the group members is sick, hurt, or giving birth. A group of Dolphins can even ram a shark. Even a very big shark. Dolphins have many predators like the tiger shark, Dusky sharks, bull sharks and the killer whale. Dolphins love to have fun and play. They sometimes can play with seaweed or play a game of fight with each other. They can even play with other sea animals like turtles, fish, seals, birds and even whales. Dolphins will play with an animal even though the animal does want to play or not. Even adult dolphin will love to play and have fun. Dolphins love to ride and leap on the waves that are created by ships and boats that are moving in the water. They can even body surf through the waves that are made by human surfers. Dolphins can easily learn human games. Sometimes dolphins can come up with their own games to play with humans.

Dolphins are really close related to whales. They are mammals. You can till that they are mammals because they have a blowhole on top of their head that helps the animal breathe. When the dolphin goes underwater then the blowhole will close so that the dolphin does not drown. Dolphins are warm-blooded and they can give birth to live babies. Dolphins are the smartest animals in the world. Dolphins have very good eye vision they can see very will underwater and up in the air. There underwater vision is like a cats or dogs eye sight. The dolphins that live in the river do not have very good eye vision because they live in murky water so using their good eye vision would not be a good idea. A dolphins gestation period is usually to 10 or 12 months. A newborn dolphin is about 10 to 400 pounds. (4.5 to 180 kilometers). The dolphins other gestation period are about 12 months, they are able to wean in about 9 months. Dolphins will start to breed when they are the age of 8 years old. Females only have one calf though out their whole lives. They will stop having babies when they are 14 years old. New born dolphins can grow about 35 and 50 inches long and they can weigh about 30 and 50 pounds. Dolphin mothers can be very protective because the calf can quickly swim away and they can get lost in the open ocean. They also get attack by sharks. So mothers have to keep a close eye on their young all the time. If the baby stays to close to its mother then the mother will get trapped between her flippers or she can hold on to it. The baby can stay under water about seconds. The other females in the pod are now called aunties. Their job is to help protect the baby from getting into danger. Females can make a playpen by swimming around in a circle so that the babies can play safe. Dolphins are in trouble today because they are being hunted. Dolphins are also in trouble because they are getting caught in fishing nets these nets are used to catch dolphins too. Fisherman usually catch them when they are underwater so that the net can drown the dolphin. Fisherman will use their nets to snag any underwater animal that ever swims by. A dolphin worst enemy is people. When a fisherman catches a dolphin then the dolphin often dies.

Most of the time when a fisherman mistaken a dolphin for a fish they often do not try to save the animal that they catch in their nets. Dolphins habitats are also about to disappear because of fishing nets and people are hurting them. People sometimes use bait to catch a fish. Dolphins are also in danger because of pollution and the people are dumping their garbage into the ocean this is really bad because dolphins will eat the garbage and then they will get sick and die. People are dumping their garbage over dolphins habitat this is causing too much trouble for the dolphin population. During the 1973s and 144,000 dolphins have died from fishing nets. The Marine Mammal Protection Act is making laws to force commercial fisherman to change their fishing techniques to reduce deaths from dolphins. People that live in China, India and in the Amazon think it is very important to protect river dolphins in these areas. There are lots of people that admire and care for dolphins. We have to hope that these amazing marine mammals can be with us for the years to come. The bottlenose dolphin population is starting to go at low risk of survival. That is what I know about dolphins.