Dolphins are actually small, toothed whales. These highly intelligent animals breathe using lungs, relying on air from the surface. They communicate through a large vocabulary of sounds and use a form of echo-location. Dolphins and whales ‘sleep’ by taking catnaps at the surface of the water for a few minutes, and have outstanding vision in and out of the water. Mucus secreted from glands at the outer corner of the eye protects them from salty sea water.
Dolphins feed on all kinds of fish and crustaceans, with adults eating 6-7kg of fish a day or 9kg or more in colder winter waters. Dolphin calves are suckled by their mothers and are weaned at 12 to 18 months. Dolphins in the wild live around 30 years –with some females living for 40.
Dolphins travel in pods of up to 15, and pods may travel in herds of several hundred, or even thousand, individuals. Common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins are playful, gregarious animals, with common dolphins appearing to ‘love’ boats, and bottlenose most happily tolerating humans swimming amongst them.
However, the Boto or Pink River dolphin which is found in rivers of the Amazon drainages tends to be solitary.
For some of the best places to see dolphins, click on links to your left.