37 Amazing Facts about Dolphins

1.  Dolphins don’t drink salt water, drinking salt water makes them sick and can kill them!!  Dolphins get water from their food (fish and squid).  In extreme cases they generate water by burning their fat.

2.  Dolphins engage in sex for pleasure and only three species do this,  humans(Also read: Amazing facts about human body) and bonobos are the other two species.

3.  Dolphins cannot chew their food, they don’t have jaw muscles for chewing.  They  have to swallow their food.

4.  A tablespoon of water in a dolphin’s lung can make it drown.  Two tablespoons of water in human’s lung can make him drown.

5.  Dolphin swims by moving its tail up and down.  Fishes usually swim by moving their tail from side to side.

6.  The smallest dolphin is the Maui Dolphin or Hector, which are about to extinct and only 150 are left.  The largest dolphin is the killer whale!! Yes, killer whale is a dolphin.

7.  Dolphins are playful and friendly in nature.  Dolphins play around boats, help fisherman by signaling them, when it is best to cast their nets.

8.  Millions of dolphins have drowned becoming entangled,  it seems that they can’t detect the fine threads of nets.

9.  Humans are the most dangerous enemies to dolphins.

10.  While sleeping, dolphins shut down only half of their brain to stay alert and to breathe.  Dolphins with their blowholes opened, sleep (Also read:Amazing facts about sleep) at the surface of the water.

11.  Dolphins will die if they are given anesthesia and they don’t breathe automatically like humans in sleep with mouth.

12.  Dolphins were trained by U.S. navy in 1971 to guard a navy base in Vietnam and dispatched them, with large carbon-dioxide-filled hypodermic needles strapped to their beaks.  These creatures are trained to hunt humans swimming in water and prod them, delivering  fatal injections.

13.  Almost all wild animals avoid humans, but wild dolphins are known to associate and play with humans.

14.  Dolphins can kill sharks!! They can kill them by ramming them with their beaks.

15.  Dolphins seem to have a wide range of emotions.  They have a complex social structure and do not live alone, they live in schools or pods.

16.  Dolphins can produce clicks for sonar and whistles for communication  at the same time, which would be similar to human speaking in two voices, with two different pitches with two different people.

17.  Even if you block a dolphin’s ear with suction cups, it hardly affects its hearing.  Scientists believe that sound may be carried from water to inner ear through a different route than ear canal.

18.  Dolphin’s echo-location or “sonar” is far superior to bat’s sonar and human-made sonar.This ability is rare in nature.

19.  Marine dolphins can see quite well both above and below the water.  Dolphin’s eyes produce tears, a secretion which is slippery and protects its eye from foreign objects and infections.  This secretion also reduces friction between the surface of the eye and surrounding water.

20.  Dolphins have  sense of taste but do not have sense of smell.  Dolphins can distinguish between sour, bitter, sweet and salty tastes.

21.  Dolphins carry more oxygen in their blood and can swim longer than a fish, this makes dolphins the best adapted one to sea than most fish.

22.  When compared to human’s brain most of the mammals brains are relatively smooth, whereas human brain is more convoluted.  Dolphin’s brain is more folded than humans, scientists often measure intelligence of dolphins by the number of brain folds.

23.  Dolphins show signs of self-awareness,they can understand 60 words, which can make up around 2000 sentences.

24.  It is difficult to distinguish dolphins and porpoises, dolphins teeth are rounded ,cone shaped and porpoises have blunt, rounded faces and spade-shaped teeth.

25.   The word Dolphin is originated from Greek delphis which is related to delphys, which means womb.

26.  In ancient Greece people who killed a dolphin were given death sentence. They consider dolphins to be sacrilegious.

27.  The narwhal dolphin seen in Greenland Sea and Baffin Bay, has a ivory tusk which is often poached.

28.  While giving birth, female dolphin will assist and other dolphins will protect her by swimming around the mother.

29.  In dolphins, blow hole is an evolved nose, which is moved upward to the top of dolphin’s head.

30.  Dolphins eyesight is better than humans, these creatures can move each eye independently and each eye gives them a panoramic view of 300 degrees.  They can also see in low light, tapetem lucidem is a reflective layer of cells which helps them in low light vision.

31.  Dolphins don’t bleed and their healing capabilities are far more better than humans.

32.  Dolphins have two stomachs one for digestion and other for storing food.

33.  Dolphins need to eat 5% of their body weight for their survival, every day.

34.  Dolphins spend majority of their time in depths of 2 to 3 meters, 300 meter is the deepest dive made by a U.S. navy trained dolphin.

35.  A female dolphin is called cow, male dolphin a bull, and the baby is called calf.

36.  Dolphins commit suicide!! Yes when dolphins are troubled to new ways they commit suicide by refusing food and smashing their heads to walls.

37.  Dolphins are mammals and give birth to young.

Also read: Amazing facts about fish, Amazing facts about sharks, Amazing facts about animals, Amazing facts about dogs.