Marshaun

Study of Dolphins

My project is about dolphins. It is about their life and how long they live. Also its about the research people have done and what they have found out about dolphins. I picked my topic because there were so many things I did not know about dolphins. Also, I thought it would be an interesting project. Another reason is because I thought it would be fun to do. There are many things I hoped to learn about my topic when I started. I wanted to learn how fast they could swim. Also I hoped I would find out how long they live and what type of food they eat. I learned most of the things I expected to learn. A lot of things turned out as I thought they would, but some did not. My research began with writing down information that I found was important. Also I would check what kind of information I needed more of. I found my research in books and web sites. The books were the most helpful for me. The difficult part was finding the right books to use. This paragraph talks about the life of dolphins. They hunt together in groups for food. Some catch food by herding the fish together. They can live up to thirty years, sometimes more. Young dolphins and weak adult dolphins are most likely to be killed. When dolphins are born they come out tail first so they do not drown. After the calf is born the mother pushes it to the surface to get its first breath of air. When the calf is born it is thirty to thirty-five inches long. Baby dolphins drink milk from their mother. A dolphin sometimes can give birth to twins or triplets. This paragraph is about dolphins and other fish. Dolphins feed on schooling fish . They use echolocation to locate their prey. Dolphins sometimes eat crabs, squid, and shrimp. Their predators are sharks, orcas, other dolphins, and people. Unlike fish, dolphins do not have scales. Instead they have soft, sensitive skin. Also they do not lay eggs, but give birth to young that feed on their mother's milk. Another thing is they belong to a group of animals called mammals. The last thing is they go to the surface to get fresh air. This paragraph talks about the bodies of dolphins. They use echolocation as a sonar in the water to find their way. Dolphins get sound through their lower jaw which then goes to their brain. Also they can hear sounds humans cannot. They have blubber under their skin to keep them warm. They have forty to fifty-eight pairs of short sharp teeth. Their teeth are cone-shaped which are for catching slippery fish. Their tails are horizontal. The shape of their body helps them move fast in the water. This is information about the most common dolphins. Bottlenose dolphins swallow their food whole. They can live almost anywhere. The Scottish bottlenose dolphins are gray. Common dolphins are mostly black on their upper backs. They are found in tropical seas. There are more Common dolphins then any other kind of dolphins. Spinner dolphins are the acrobats of the dolphins family. They are called Spinners because they spin in the air when they leap. They also do amazing somersaults. There are two types of Spinner dolphins : long-snouted and short-snouted. Spotted dolphins got its name because it has spots on it. When they are born it has no spots. Some of them have so many spots you cannot see their background color. These are some dolphins people do not know as much about. The Chilean Black dolphin is a small animal. Their dorsal fin is rounded. Also it is a gray kind of color. Its lips are white, so are its belly and throat. White Sided dolphins are gray. Each jaw has thirty to forty pairs of teeth. The White Sided dolphins maximum body length is about two and five tenths to two and eight tenths meters. Their dorsal fin and flippers are sharply-pointed. Also its dorsal fin, upper jaw, and flippers are black. The Clymene dolphin closely resembles the Spinner dolphin. Its undersides are white, gray on the flanks, and a dark gray dorsal cape. Also the tip of its beak is black. Adults can weigh around eighty kilograms and measure approximately two meters. Humpback dolphins are gray or pale gray on their uppersides, with a lighter underside. They reach a maximum length of two and five tenths meters. Dolphins have many different ways to communicate and many ways they use it. When a young dolphin gets lost its mother calls it and it follows the sound back. Dolphins do not always make loud sounds to show how they feel. They sometimes make soft, gentle sounds when they touch each other to show affection. They use movements to scold their young. To do so the mother dolphin moves her head up and down many times. They make sounds by pushing air back and forth between air sacs in the nasal cavity below its blowhole. Then the clicks, whistles, and squeaks move into the water. When a dolphin is upset it may make loud popping noises. Also it might clap its jaws, slap its tail, make a big cloud of bubbles, or even hit the water with its body. Baby dolphins use squeals before they can talk. The clicks and buzzes dolphins make go through the water as sound waves. This paragraph has some other information that people have found about dolphins. They have bigger brains than humans. Dolphins are intelligent animals. They can be taught to read picture cards and perform tricks. Also they are warm blooded animals. Dolphin's body temperature stay the same however hot or cold the water is. Some dolphins have become river dolphins and lake dwellers, but most live in oceans. They have four of the same senses people have. Another thing is they can see in and out of water well. Some leap out of the water to just look around. I read a book about a person's life. The one book I read was about Randy Wells who was a dolphin researcher. An important event that happened in his life was when he graduated from the University of South Florida. Another one was when he met Dr. Kenneth, a whale researcher. Learning about Randy Wells helped me get some information for my topic. I learned many interesting and unusual facts about dolphins that I have not mentioned yet. They swim at eighteen miles per hour. Dolphins live in pods of over one hundred members. They breathe through their blowhole which leads the air to their lungs. Their best defense for predators are their speed and quickness. They use their teeth to grab prey, not to cut or chew. Also dolphins can grow from four to thirty feet. Another thing is killer whales are just really big dolphins. These are some jobs and what kind of education you need for them. One of them is a dolphins researcher. Another one is training dolphins to do certain tricks. Some education you will need is to learn how dolphins react to different things. Also to learn how to work with boats. I have many things to say about doing my project. I had a lot of fun doing it. It was good for me because I got to learn things I did not know before. If I could have had more time I would have found more information.   Names of Dolphins or Animals Related to Them Atlantic Humpbacked Dolphin Atlantic Spotted Dolphin Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin Bottlenose Dolphin Chilean Dolphin Chinese White Dolphin Clymene Dolphin Commerson's Dolphin Dusky Dolphin Fraser's Dolphin Heactor's Dolphin Heaviside's Dolphin Hourglass Dolphin Indo-Pacific Hump-backed Dolphins Long-beaked Common Dolphin Northern Rightwhale Dolphin Pacific White-Sided Dolphin Pantropical Spotted Dolphin Risso's Dolphin Rough-Toothed Dolphin Short-beaked Common Dolphin Southern Rightwhale Dolphin Spinner Dolphin Striped Dolphin   Glossary beach-rubbing - a dolphin's action of rubbing its body on the sea floor bull - father dolphin calf - baby dolphin cow - mother dolphin dorsal fin - the fin on a dolphin's back echolocation - learn about an object from sound fluke - one of the lobes of a dolphin's tail mammal - a warm blooded animal that has a backbone orca - killer wale pod - group of dolphins porpoising - jumping out of the water and going back in head first rostrum - beak, or upper snout, of a dolphin signature whistle - a dolphin's own name spyhopping - a dolphin sticking its head out of the water   Bibliography Gentle, Victor and Perry, Janet. (2001). Bottlenose Dolphins. Milwaukee. Hirschi, Ron. (2003). Dolphins. New York. Houghton, Sue. (1994). Dolphins. City unknown. Moffett, Martha. (1971). Dolphins. New York. Pfeffer, Wendy. (2003). Dolphin Talk. Baltimore. Prevost, John. (1995). Common Dolphins. Minneapolis. Unknown Author. [Online] Available http://www.answers.com/topic/dolphin, February, 2005. Ward, Heather. Cetacea. [Online] Available http://www.cetacea.org, January 2005. .

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