Download Bottlenose Dolphins are Amazing

Bottlenose Dolphins
are Amazing
By Sarah Winter
Scientific Clarifications
Classification:
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Class Mammalia
Order Cetacea
Family Delpinidae
Genus Tursiops
Species Turncatus
Scientific name: Tursiops Turncatus
Dolphins in General
Closely related to: whales and porpoises
Height: 3.5 meters long
Weight: 250-650 kilograms in a lifetime
Special names: baby- calves
female- cows
male- bulls
group- pods
Dolphins’ Body
Color: grey to dark grey on its back, fading
to white on its belly.
Symmetry: Dolphins have only one line of
symmetry; right down the spine splitting
the dorsal fin in half, vertically.
Shape: looks like an air plane with an extra
fin on top.
Skin: soft texture and is super smooth.
Dolphins’ Body Parts
Body Parts:
Pectoral flippers are the forelimbs of Bottlenose Dolphins. They use this part of
the body to steer and to stop using flukes. They also stoke one another with
the pectoral flippers, increasing social bond.
Flukes are used to move in the water. Dolphins propel themselves by the up
and down moments of the flukes. Flukes do not contain bones, it is made up
of fibrous connective tissue.
Dorsal fins also have no bones like Flukes. At the time of swimming it help
Dolphins to stabilize.
They also use their tails to hunt, hitting the fish in order to catch and swallow it.
The eyes and ears are located at the sides of the head. Because the ears are
the inner parts, they are hardly seen on the surface of the body. But the
dimples seen near eyes can show you its inner ears.
Survival
Predators: most of the predators are large sharks; usually great white,
bull, dusky, and tiger sharks. Some say killer whales are predators
although this has never been observed. But the most dangerous
killer of all are humans; they are always being accidentally caught in
fishing nets.
Defense: Dolphins defend themselves by battering their snouts into the
sharks soft underbelly. This can result to killing the shark.
Movement: Bottlenose Dolphins move by swimming, and when they
want to perform, they jump. They swim both fast and slow, much like
how humans get around on foot. When they want to show off by
jumping out of the water and back in forming half a circle, they swim
fast, when they want to relax in the water and just take a swim, they
go slow. When dolphins are being chased by a predator, they
obviously swim fast, this is why their speed is so important.
Diet
Prey: Dolphins are carnivores eating up to 20 pounds of
food each day, mostly small fish, crabs, squid and
sometimes crustaceans.
Capturing food: One way Dolphins get their food is by
whacking the fish with their tail, they call this fish
whacking.
Food Chain: Bottlenose Dolphins are about in the middle
of the food chain
Way of eating: Bottlenose Dolphins eat eat food just like
humans; by chewing the food with their teeth.
Reproduction
Dolphin Love: Mating Dolphins- like most mammals, Bottlenose Dolphins give live birth to
their young, and nurse them with mammary glands, though it sounds odd to imagine
nursing underwater. But the birth of a dolphin starts long before his babyhood; it
starts with how Mom and Dad first met.
Most of what is known from recent research about dolphin reproduction was observed in
captivity, which some might agree is not necessarily normal behavior. But what has
been determined is that dolphins are most likely to mate during the spring, with malefemale courtship ritual which is like dolphin dating. When a male dolphin is interested
in a female he will nudge her from behind with his sex organs for several minutes,
and then mounts her. After this dolphin mating is roughly as ordinary as any other
mammalian mating. Dolphins are among the most sexual of animals, and they have
more than one partner. When aroused, a dolphin male may mate several times an
hour, often with the same female but not always. But even though the male may play
and then swim away, female dolphins can usually depend on their pods to help
protect the baby dolphin. Bottlenose Dolphins usually only give birth to one calf at a
time there have been situations found where multiples are produced. They will then
give birth to this calf 10-12 months later. And because dolphins are mammals they do
not reproduce asexually.
Behavior
Traveling: Bottlenose Dolphins travel in
groups called pods. They do not migrate in
the fall to prepare for the winter, but they
do move seasonally.
Nocturnalation: Dolphins mostly search in
the day but when fish start to migrate they
become nocturnal.
Habitat and Home
Biome: Bottlenose Dolphins live in warm
watered oceans all around the world. They
live as far north as Japan and Norway and
as far south as Argentina and New
Zealand. They also live near the southern
tip of Africa too.
Works Cited
2009-WikiAnswers.com,
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_common_dolphin_protect_itself
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_dolphins_defend_themselves
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_animal_kingdom_is_the_bottle-nose_dolphin_a_part_of
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_Bottlenose_dolphins_preditors
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_biome_do_dolphins_live_in
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_dolphins_skin_like
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_scientific_name_for_bottle_nosed_dolphin
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_type_of_climate_do_bottle_nose_dolphins_live_in
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_are_dolphins_on_the_food_chain
Works Cited continued
2009-Dolphinkind.com,
http://www.dolphinkind.com/dolhin_facts.html
(unknown)-Dolphins-world.com,
http://www.dolphins-world.com/Dolphin_Reproduction.html
http://www.dolphins-world.com/what_are_the_common_dolphins_predators.html
/
http://www.dolphins-world.com/where_do_bottlenose_dolphins_go_in_the_summer
1999-eHow.com, http://www.ehow.com/about_458814_do-dolphins-migrate-hibrate.html