The Fin-tastic Dolphin

Location

Dolphins live in most aquatic environments, specifically oceans worldwide. The bottlenose dolphin lives primarily in coastal and offshore waters and the bay. Depending on the current, short-beaked dolphins live in warm tropical waters and sometimes even cooler water.

Unique Features

Some unique features of dolphins include:

1. Dolphins are very social.
2. Dolphins are also extremely intelligent.

Eating Behaviors

When dolphins hunt for their food, they use three different techniques. The first technique is herding. Dolphins will use the movements of their tails to bring their prey together. The dolphins can also work with each other to surround large prey groups. They also like to use their echolocation to locate where their prey is so that they can see how close or far they are. Lastly, dolphins use strand feeding to push themselves and their prey to shore to eat them and then return to the water.

Communication Methods

Since dolphins are aquatic animals, their communication is much different from that of a land animal. They communicate with their fellow dolphin friends by clicking, tail and fin smacking, and squeaking.

What are some Fun Facts?

1. Dolphins are highly intelligent, with large brains and complex social networks.
2. Dolphins sleep with half of their brain at a time, keeping the other half alert to detect predators and breathe.
3. Dolphins can swim over 25 miles per hour.