Dolphins: the second intelligent creatures on earth! Dolphins - facts about brothers in mind Anomalies in behavior.

Each dolphin in the ocean has its own name, which it responds to when its relatives call it. He receives it immediately as soon as he is born, and it is a characteristic whistle lasting 0.9 seconds. Dolphins not only call each other by name, but also introduce themselves when meeting strangers. And identifying a relative by voice without seeing him is a piece of cake for them.

Dolphins are mammals from the family of toothed whales of the cetacean order. There are about forty species of these animals on the planet, and they can be seen anywhere in the World Ocean. Most dolphins prefer to live in tropical and subtropical latitudes, but there are also those that like colder waters, so you can see them not far from the Arctic, and some species are found both there and there. For example, although the white-beaked dolphin lives mainly in the North Atlantic, it can often be seen off the coast of Turkey.

Most members of the family (for example, bottlenose dolphins, white-beaked dolphins) are marine inhabitants, but there are four species that prefer to live in fresh river or lake water. The river dolphin lives in Asia, as well as in the waters of the South American Amazon and Orinoco rivers.

Unfortunately, if previously representatives of this family were often encountered, now the river dolphin, due to loss of habitats and pollution, environment, a decrease in the amount of food and small populations has practically disappeared and is listed in the Red Book.

Description

The length of dolphins ranges from one and a half to ten meters. The smallest dolphin in the world is Maui, which lives near New Zealand: the length of the female does not exceed 1.7 meters. Large inhabitant depths of the sea The white-faced dolphin is considered to be about three meters long. The most major representative is a killer whale: the length of males reaches ten meters.

It is worth noting that males are usually ten to twenty centimeters longer than females (the exception is killer whale dolphins - here the difference is about two meters). They weigh on average from one hundred fifty to three hundred kilograms, the killer whale weighs about a ton.

Back sea ​​dolphins There are gray, blue, dark brown, black and even pink (albino) colors. The front part of the head can be either plain or white (for example, the white-faced dolphin has a beak and the front part of the forehead white).

In some species, the front mouth is rounded and there is no beak-shaped mouth. In others, small ones, the head ends in an elongated mouth in the shape of a flattened “beak”, and the mouth is shaped in such a way that it seems to people watching them that they are always smiling, and therefore they often have an irresistible desire to swim with dolphins. At the same time, the impression is not spoiled even by the huge number of teeth of the same cone shape - dolphins have about two hundred of them.

Thanks to their elongated body and smooth, elastic skin, these animals hardly feel the resistance of the water while moving. Thanks to this, they are able to move very quickly ( average speed a dolphin's speed is 40 km/h), dive to a depth of about one hundred meters, jump out of the water nine meters high and five meters long.

Another unique feature of these marine mammals is that almost all species of dolphins (with the exception of the Amazon river dolphin and several other species) have good vision both underwater and above the surface. They have this ability due to the structure of the retina, one part of which is responsible for the image in the water, the other - above its surface.

Since whales and dolphins are relatives, like all representatives of cetaceans, they are quite capable of staying under water for a long period. But they still need oxygen, so they constantly float to the surface, showing their blue muzzle and replenishing air reserves through the blowhole, which closes under water. Even during sleep, the animal is fifty centimeters from the surface and, without waking up, swims out every half a minute.

Way of life

Dolphins live in schools and do not tolerate loneliness very well. Although they do not have a leader, they carry out all actions in coordination: they hunt together, raise children, have fun, performing amazingly beautiful jumps one after another.

The dolphin is considered one of the most intelligent mammals on our planet: the weight of its brain is 1700 grams, which is three hundred grams more than a human, and the convolutions in the cerebral cortex are also twice as large. This explains their highly developed social consciousness, ability to sympathize, readiness to help sick and wounded relatives, as well as drowning people.

Dolphins help quite actively: if one of the members of the pod is injured or barely stays afloat, they support him near the surface so that he cannot drown and choke. They do the same in relation to a person, also helping to get to the shore. Some scientists explain why dolphins do this by caring for the population: each individual in the pod is valuable - and everything must be done to save its life.

Language

Animals use gestures to communicate (turns, jumps, various styles swimming, head, fins, tail), as well as voice: the sounds of dolphins are about 14 thousand signals, and everyone has heard about the songs of dolphins. These unique animals are capable of perceiving vibration frequencies of up to 200 thousand per second, while the human ear is up to 20 thousand.

They are also four times more capable of analyzing dolphin sounds by separating frequencies from each other (to find out why dolphins have these abilities, see Lately a lot of research is being done). Communication occurs mainly with the help of ultrasound (it is especially convenient for them to use it to transmit sound over vast distances).

Dolphin songs are not only ultrasound: the sounds of dolphins often sound at a medium frequency and are expressed by clicks, creaks, and whistles (studies have shown that they perceive their speech as hieroglyphic pictures).

There are two types of dolphin sounds:

• Sonar or echolocation - animals hear the echo of a beating sound and identify it;
• Whistling or chirping - these sounds of dolphins are used for close communication with relatives and the animals express their emotions with them. Scientists counted about 186 different types"whistles", in which, as in human speech, contains sounds, syllables, words, phrases, paragraphs, context and dialect.

Nutrition

Dolphins' diet is based on fish, squid, and shrimp (some dolphins in the ocean are quite capable of diving to a depth of 260 kilometers to catch their favorite prey); killer whales eat marine mammals and birds.

They catch fish in different ways. Sometimes the whole school of dolphins searches for her, sometimes in a separate group or they send a scout to look for her.

If the hunt takes place in the open sea, dolphins surround a large school of fish, crowding them into a heap, after which they take turns diving there and feeding. If they are fishing near the shore, the strategy is somewhat different: a school of dolphins drives the schools towards land, after which the fish are easily caught in shallow water.

Reproduction

The ability to reproduce in females appears between the fifth and twelfth years of life, in males - between the ninth and thirteenth. Their pairs are unstable and the animals change partners every time.

Exactly how long pregnancy lasts has not been established; the period is estimated to range from ten to eighteen months. When giving birth, the female is very close to the surface so that, as soon as the baby is born, she raises her tail high, giving him the opportunity to take a breath of air before falling into the water.

Usually one baby is born, about half a meter long, and until six months the mother feeds it with milk and protects it. Newborn babies usually do not fall asleep during the first month of their life and do not allow their mothers to sleep, swimming around them and surfacing every thirty seconds, forcing them to be constantly on alert.

Relationships with people

People and dolphins have a long and complex history: until recently, animals were actively hunted, which led to the complete and partial extinction of some species. After fishing was banned, the situation got better, but a new trend emerged: catching these animals for show (especially since they are very smart and catch everything on the fly) and giving people far from the sea the opportunity to swim with dolphins. It should be noted that the idea is not the best, because if in natural conditions the inhabitants of the sea live from thirty to fifty years, in captivity - only seven.

Such a quick death is influenced primarily by an overly passive lifestyle, even despite constant training to participate in the show, extremely limited space and water quality: it lacks the full range of nutrients and minerals they need.

Recently, people and dolphins have learned to interact better (primarily this concerns humans, since these animals are sociable, friendly and peaceful). Moreover, communication with these mammals benefits almost everyone: by giving the opportunity to listen to the songs of dolphins, communicate, stroke the blue back, feed fish, swim with dolphins, psychotherapists and doctors effectively use them to treat diseases in children such as cerebral palsy, early childhood autism, etc.

Dolphins are not fish at all, as many believe, but aquatic mammals small size, belonging to the order Cetaceans. Dolphins are directly related to whales and killer whales (the latter are actually large dolphins). Very distant relatives of dolphins can be considered pinnipeds and terrestrial predators leading an aquatic lifestyle (sea otters). This group of animals is vast and diverse and includes 50 species.

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

The common features of all types of dolphins are a naked, streamlined body, flexible and muscular at the same time, highly modified limbs that have turned into fins, a small head with a pointed snout and a dorsal fin, which most dolphins have. On the head of these animals the transition between the frontal part and the nose is well defined. Dolphins have small eyes and do not see well because they do not use their eyesight to track prey. They also lack tactile whiskers and a sense of smell. In our understanding, dolphins do not have a nose as such. The fact is that dolphins are so adapted to constantly living in water that their nostrils have merged into one breathing hole (blowhole), which is located on... the parietal part of the head. This allows animals to breathe when their body is almost completely submerged in water. In addition to the nose, dolphins also lack ears. But they have a rumor, it just works in an unusual way. In the absence of external auditory openings, the perception of sounds was taken over by the inner ear and air cushions in the frontal part of the brain, which act as a resonator. These animals have perfect echolocation! They pick up the reflected sound wave and thus determine the location of the object. The nature sound vibrations dolphins also determine the distance to an object and its character (density, structure, material from which it is made). Without exaggeration, we can say that dolphins literally see the world through sounds and see it much better than other creatures! The dolphins themselves make sounds similar to crackling, clicking, clicking and even chirping. The sounds made by dolphins are extremely diverse and complex; they consist of many individual modulations and are used by animals not only for communication, but also for communication with the outside world. Dolphins have numerous teeth (40-60 pieces), small and uniform. This structure of the dental system is due to the fact that dolphins only catch prey, but do not chew it. The body of dolphins is completely naked, devoid of even the slightest rudiments of hair. Moreover, the skin of these animals has special structure, reducing water friction and improving the hydrodynamic properties of the body.

Common dolphin or common dolphin (Delphinus delphis).

Because dolphins are very mobile and constantly move through the water at high speeds, the outer layer of skin is constantly worn out. Therefore, the deep layers of the skin have a powerful supply of regenerating cells that are constantly dividing. A dolphin goes through 25 cell layers of skin per day! We can say that these animals are in a state of continuous molting. Dolphins have two types of coloring: monochromatic (gray, black, pink) and contrasting, when large areas of the body are painted black and white.

Commerson's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii) has a bright black and white coloration.

Dolphins live exclusively in water bodies, never leaving the water column. The range of these animals is very extensive and covers almost the entire Earth. There are no dolphins only in the coldest Arctic and sub-Antarctic waters. Mostly these mammals live in salty waters - seas and oceans, but some species of dolphins (Chinese and Amazonian river dolphins) live in large rivers. Dolphins prefer open spaces, moving freely across the ocean, but sometimes they come close to the shore and even play in the surf. Another phenomenon associated with this is the so-called stranding of dolphins. Cases of individual animals and even entire schools of dolphins being found on the shore have long been known. Discarded animals are always healthy and often still alive. For what reason they end up on the shore, scientists are still arguing. It is impossible to blame dolphins for errors in movement, because their echolocating abilities are highly developed. The idea that dolphins do this on purpose is untenable, since not a single animal is capable of suicide. It is most likely that dolphins end up on the shore due to information “noise” - large quantity sounds made by ship engines, radio frequency beacons, etc. The dolphins' sophisticated echo sounder picks up this cacophony, but their brains are not able to filter out so many sound sources, as a result, the animals see an erroneous "map of the area" and become stranded. This confirms that dolphins die more often in areas of busy shipping and generally close to human civilization.

A school of common dolphins.

All types of dolphins are school animals; their groups can number from 10 to 150 individuals. Social relations they are very developed. These are friendly animals that maintain peaceful relations with each other; there are no fights or fierce competition between them. But the pack has its own leaders, more experienced animals and young animals. They communicate with each other using sounds of different tones and durations; each member of the herd has their own individual voice. With various signals, dolphins inform each other about impending danger, the availability of food, or the desire to play. Moreover, dolphins indicate each category of objects with their own sound. For example, when a killer whale (a dangerous predator) approaches, dolphins “speak” differently than when a whale approaches (just a neighbor); they can combine simple sounds into complex words and even sentences. This is nothing more than a speech! That is why dolphins are considered one of the most highly developed animals, putting their intelligence on the same level as apes.

A flock of bottlenose dolphins looks at the underwater photographer with interest.

There is another little-known side to the dolphin mind. Due to high level development, these animals have a lot of free time, not busy searching for food. Dolphins use it for communication, games and... sex. These animals engage in sexual intercourse regardless of the breeding season and the biological cycle of each member of the herd. Thus sexual relations serve not only for procreation, but also for pleasure. Dolphins also love to play “outdoor games,” as we would call them. They practice jumping out of the water forward, upward, or twisting around their axis like a corkscrew.

By moving its strong tail, a dolphin is able to lift its body above the water, hold it for several seconds, and even move backwards (tail stand).

Dolphins have one more thing in common with humans little known fact. It turns out that despite differences in physiology, dolphins can suffer from diseases that are quite human; in captivity, cases of liver cirrhosis, pneumonia and brain cancer have been recorded.

Dolphins feed exclusively on fish. They prefer small and average fish- anchovies, sardines. The fishing technique of dolphins is unique. First, the herd scans the water column using echolocation; when a school of fish is detected, the dolphins quickly approach it. Along the way, they make sounds of a special frequency that cause panic in the fish. A school of fish gathers together in a dense heap, and that’s all the dolphins need. As they approach, they work together to catch fish, often while the dolphins exhale air, the bubbles of which create a kind of barrier around the school of fish. Thus, these hunters can catch a significant part of the school of fish. Dolphins also have meal companions: seagulls and gannets monitor the behavior of dolphins from above and, while feeding, attack schools of fish from the air.

A common dolphin fishes with a shark (in the background). In this case, the shark does not pose a threat to the dolphin.

Dolphins are breeding all year round. They don't have any special marriage rituals, but it is usually the leading male of the herd who mates with the female. Mating occurs while moving, and the birth of a baby dolphin occurs while moving. Dolphin calves, like all cetaceans, are born tail first. This is due to the fact that the newborn is under water and for the first breath he must first rise to the surface. Dolphin calves are born so well developed that from the very first seconds of life they swim independently after their mother. However, the mother and nearby members of the herd help the baby rise to the surface, pushing it with their noses. The cub often suckles from its mother, thanks to the nutritious milk it grows quickly. Communicating with relatives, the cub learns from them the art of hunting and soon begins to participate in the life of the herd on an equal basis with adults.

The main enemies of dolphins are sharks and... their own relatives. One of the largest species of dolphins, the killer whale, hunts for warm-blooded inhabitants of the seas. Smaller species often become its prey. Since ancient times, humans have also hunted dolphins. True, dolphin hunting has never been carried out on an industrial scale, because apart from meat (not the best taste) you can’t extract anything from a dolphin carcass. Therefore, dolphins were caught only local residents northern countries or sailors on long journeys. Despite this, these animals are still caught in some countries. Such a hunt looks cruel, because the meat of caught dolphins is only used as food for dogs and does not bring any profit. economic benefit. Such actions are doubly absurd considering that many species of dolphins are endangered. These animals die in fishing nets, due to oil spills, and from injuries caused by ship propellers. At the same time, dolphins are often kept in water parks, where they undergo complex training programs and perform in entertaining shows.

Bottlenose dolphins, it turns out, can write sounds. Breakthrough in decoding. Renowned dolphin researcher Jack Kassewitz ( Jack Kassewitz) and his wife Donna ( Donna Brewer Kassewitz), founders of a non-profit organization Global Heart(World Heart), currently conducting research as part of the largest project in recent times SpeakDolphin - "Let's talk to the dolphin". Its ultimate goal, in fact, is indicated in this title. On the way to it, enthusiasts seriously hope to first decipher the language and understand the conversations of the “intellectuals of the sea,” or rather, their chatter. And then - communicate as equals. So that dolphins understand people.

Many people are thirsty and thirsty for a frank conversation with dolphins. But numerous attempts by scientists different countries delving into the secrets of their language has not yet brought tangible results. However, Jack and Donna are confident of success. They promise a speedy breakthrough in decryption. It should be provided by a fundamentally new approach to the language of our sea brothers in mind. After all, for the first time, researchers have discovered graphic equivalents of their words in dolphins. A kind of hieroglyphs. Essentially, writing. The Kassewitz couple are going to deal with it, calling on fellow scientists for help, writes sunhome.ru.

Jack Kassewitz, project director SpeakDolphin- “Let's Talk to the Dolphin” is a dictionary of our brothers in mind.

They went to sea and never returned

Dolphins, like us, are mammals. They appeared on Earth several tens of millions of years earlier than humans. The brain is large and developed - in some species the relative size exceeds that of humans.

Many people believe in beautiful hypothesis, as if dolphins were generally the first intelligent creatures on the planet. For some reason they moved to the sea. They stayed there - in an environment that had everything for a carefree life. And this left an imprint on their minds. He is not burdened by heavy thoughts about living space, clothing, politics, wages and technical progress. But the intelligence in the heads of the dolphins remained. The ability to communicate was also preserved. And the language has changed. Evolution adapted it for talking in water. The dolphins lead them, exchanging fairly narrow sound beams. Both high and low frequencies are used.

- Before establishing contact with extraterrestrial civilizations, it is necessary to establish contact with another civilization on Earth - the Dolphins, - called the famous American neurophysiologist John Lilly 50 years ago. And he was the first to announce that dolphins are intelligent. Their language is highly organized and worthy of close study. I have written books about this. What has fascinated most of humanity. Except for the Japanese, who still eat dolphins, killing thousands.

The dolphin hieroglyph is hidden in the cross section of its sound beam

Stupid animals

Over half a century, a lot of arguments have been found, both for and against the dolphin mind. Some researchers have argued that having a large brain does not indicate intelligence. They say it increased only because additional “convolutions” were required to remember the coastline. In other words, dolphins use it mainly for navigation.

Some people believe that a large brain is needed no more than to keep the head warm. Like, in general, dolphins are stupid. The main argument: intelligent creatures would not get entangled in fishing nets. And the dolphins get entangled and die from suffocation. Opponents object quite wittily. Imagine, they say, outside observers, for example, aliens, who doubt mental abilities of people. And they refer to the fact that they - people - constantly collide on the roads in cars. And they die. Stupid, right? How are the dolphins?

Someone heard absolutely no intelligent speech in the sounds made. Scientists from Florida Atlantic University, for example, claim: by sending impulses, dolphins simply suppress herring, which loses its orientation and becomes easy prey.

- If dolphins do have a tongue, they go to great lengths to hide this fact from us., - Jay Morton, a physiologist and authoritative expert on animal acoustic communication, once even said.

Dolphins have a whole broadcast system for conversations. By the way, they hear not with their ears, but with an antenna in the lower part of the jaw.

Hello, my name is…

And yet there is more evidence in favor of the intelligence of sea brothers. For example, Laela Say from the University of North Carolina, along with colleagues from other universities, noticed that dolphins call each other by name. And when they meet, they introduce themselves. They understand calls as words, and not just as signals from relatives. They can determine who is who without any connection with recognizing the voice of the interlocutor.

Experimenting with bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Florida, scientists broadcast synthesized messages to them - impersonal ones. More than half of the dolphins turned when they heard that they were called. Moreover, by listening to “conversations”, scientists discovered that two dolphins can talk about a third one, calling him by name.

Other details also emerged. If you believe scientists who highly value the intelligence of our sea brothers, then in the speech of dolphins there are at least six levels of organization: sound, syllable, word, simple phrase, complex phrase, paragraph.

Dolphins broadcast and perceive speech in hieroglyphic pictures.

Yes there is a lot of information here

About ten years ago, American researchers - Lawrence Doyle from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI Institute) in Mountain View, together with animal behaviorists from the University of California in Davis, California - recorded several hundred communication signals of dolphins. And they applied the so-called Zipf method to them. It was developed back in 1949 by George Kingsley Zipf, a professor at Harvard University.

The method is based on mathematics - statistical analysis of the frequency of occurring words and letters. It allows you to determine how informative, orderly and, therefore, intelligent any language, even a completely unfamiliar one, is. The result of the analysis is a graph. And if you go straight to it, without going into the wisdom of the method, it turns out that modern human languages, for example, English, Russian and even Japanese, give a straight line with a slope. Some kind of abracadabra - without tilting.

So the “dolphin line” is the same as ours. Conclusion: their language carries information. And researchers Jack and Donna Kassewitz were able to record it graphically for the first time.

Hearing is like seeing

Images of dolphin letters or words made it possible to discover the original device CymaScope, developed by British acoustic engineer John Stuart Reid ( John Stuart Reid). Using a special membrane, it allows you to see and transmit to a computer how the frequencies are distributed - down to the smallest detail - in the sound beam that the dolphin emits. As a result, each “squeak” appears in the form of a picture - a kind of hieroglyph. Or "simaglyph" ( CymaGlyph), as scientists call this ring sign.

It is already clear that simaglyphs are different, just like our words written on paper. Perhaps dolphins generally speak and hear in pictures. It’s as if they “write” with sounds and “read” what is written. They encrypt into pictures and decipher into concepts.

- I have long believed that the dolphin brain processes audio signals in a similar way to human brain video information, says project consultant Dr. Horace Dobbs, a dolphin therapist. - Now we can consider it proven.

- We are not surprised that with the help of an ultrasonic ultrasound device, images can be obtained internal organs or a fetus in the womb?- says Jack. - It is also normal to take into account the fact that dolphins’ communication system can be based on visual images. And this makes their speech “look” much more sophisticated than ours.

For people, semantic meaning arises from the third level, that is, from the word. But for the dolphin, it seems that from the first, that is, from the sound, the scientist believes. After all, each one is graphically complex enough to carry information.

Can't do without an intermediary

Scientists - both Kassewitz and Reid - believe they have found something like a Rosetta Stone - with the key that once allowed Jean-Francois Champollion and Thomas Young to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. They claim that now it will be possible to create a kind of visible dictionary of the dolphin language. And using it, compose entire phrases suitable for communication - broadcast pictures transformed into sounds.

Alas, a person will never be able to click, chirp and whistle like a dolphin. Even approximately. There are no relevant authorities. And dolphins have a complex broadcasting installation located at the top of their heads. And it contains not one, but four sound generators that can be turned on simultaneously. Where can we get to them? With our primitive vocal cords...

An intimate, direct conversation - face to face - will still not work. Therefore, the intermediary - translator, translator-synthesizer and receiver - will be a computer. The current ones are so powerful that they could already ensure dialogue. It's up to the dictionary.

Only the facts

A person is not capable of this

* We distinguish changes in sound over time if they occur at a rate of no higher than 50-70 per second. Dolphins can reach speeds of up to 2000 per second.

* Dolphins can detect a ten times wider range of sounds than humans. A person perceives vibration frequencies up to 15–20 thousand per second, a dolphin - up to 150–200 thousand per second.

* A dolphin is able to hear a sound ten times weaker than that which is accessible to the human ear.

* The ability to analyze sound and separate some frequencies from others is 4 times higher in a dolphin than in a human. All this puts at the disposal of “brothers in mind” a sound palette that is incomparable to what we have.

Jack Kassewitz and his wife Donna still expect to learn a lot of interesting things from the dolphins. For example, about how they ended up at sea.

By the way

A military secret

IN former USSR Almost all research related to dolphins was one of the most classified. Primarily because the military worked with them. They tried to adapt it for reconnaissance and sabotage. But it is possible that even then - under Soviet rule - scientists were convinced that dolphins are intelligent. And this only added to the desire of the relevant authorities to hide the information received from the public.

Already in the 21st century, in one of his interviews, a researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (formerly the Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Animal Ecology), Doctor of Biological Sciences Vladimir Markov, said that a group under his leadership studied the writing of dolphins back in the 80s of the last century. Scientists put tens of thousands of their signals on paper and tried to systematize them. They didn’t get to the bottom of the hieroglyphs because they were drawing graphs. But we understood: the dolphin’s signal is something greater in its meaning and information content than our lexical unit of language - the word. And the vocabulary of these signals is huge - about seven thousand, which dolphins use in everyday conversations. For comparison, a person costs 800-1000.

- In my opinion, - said Markov, dolphins are intelligent creatures with a highly organized intellect, capable of receiving, processing and using information, the volume of which goes beyond the limits of biological need... It feels like a little more and we will understand them...

Dolphins perhaps one of the most amazing creatures on our planet. The Polynesians and ancient Greeks had legends that dolphins were once people and have not yet forgotten about it. Sailors, no matter what flag they sailed under, considered meeting dolphins a happy omen. Over the past two centuries, a huge number of versions have been put forward about what dolphins are. Some researchers consider them highly developed animals, others - an alternative form of civilization, and still others - people from outer space. Attempts to “establish contact” with dolphins have been known since ancient times. However, most of them are broken by the language barrier...

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Dolphins are excellent swimmers and divers. Scientists have long tried to find an explanation for Gray's paradox: a swimming dolphin spends half as much energy as required by the laws of hydrodynamics. Not long ago it became clear that the secret of such economical energy consumption is a special structure skin, which dampens turbulent turbulence that occurs during movement.

A number of experiments were carried out with coatings for ships and submarines, and fuel consumption for prototypes dropped dramatically. Dolphins also use their oxygen reserves extremely sparingly. Compared with person, which uses only 20% of the oxygen it inhales, the dolphin is able to absorb up to 80%. Some of the oxygen is used immediately, and some is stored in the blood and muscles. This is what allows dolphins to carry out water up to half an hour.

The aquatic environment has changed not only the appearance of dolphins, but also their perception system. Unlike terrestrial animals, for which vision is the main thing, aquatic animals, as a rule, are forced to rely on other senses, primarily hearing. Dolphins can perceive a much wider range of sound frequencies than humans. The human ear perceives sound waves with a frequency of up to 15–20 kHz, the dolphin’s ear – up to 150–200 kHz. But that is not all. His hearing is 100 times more sensitive than human hearing, and his ability to distinguish sounds and decompose the general sound background into component frequencies is 3-4 times greater than human capabilities.

A dolphin is a representative of the suborder of toothed whales, the order of cetaceans, and the dolphin family (Delphinidae). The graceful body of the dolphin has a spindle-shaped, streamlined shape, which allows these mammals to quickly cut through the surface of the water. The dolphin's speed reaches 50 km/h.

People and dolphins

People have known about the extraordinary intelligence and intelligence of dolphins for a long time. These adorable animals rescue people from ships in distress, preventing them from drowning. You could even say that dolphins are the smartest animals on the planet. Many trainers believe that the intelligence of dolphins can be equated to that of humans, these animals behave so intelligently and unusually.

There is a joke about dolphins that says that if a person had not overtaken the dolphins and had not climbed down from the tree earlier, they would have come out of the water and now would have been the kings of nature, replacing us.

The dolphin is smart, kind, beautiful, he is an excellent learner, analyzes and remembers.

Dolphins are directly related to the formidable inhabitants of the oceans, killer whales and whales. There are about 50 species of dolphins. These include the harbor porpoise, black dolphin, gray dolphin, white-faced dolphin, and Atlantic white-sided dolphin.

The most popular is the bottlenose dolphin (large dolphin), which is what people mainly mean when talking about encounters with representatives of this species. They are well studied and tamed. Bottlenose dolphins are featured in films and participate in programs for the rehabilitation of children suffering from various neurological ailments.

Dolphin - description and photographs. What does a dolphin look like?

A dolphin is not a fish, but a mammal. Common to all species is an elongated, streamlined body, which is crowned by a small dolphin’s head with a beak-like mouth. Each jaw has 80-100 small conical teeth. The dolphin's teeth are slightly inclined inward. The transition between the muzzle and the frontal part is well defined. Almost all members of the dolphin class have a prominent dorsal fin. The skin is elastic and smooth to the touch. The length of a dolphin can reach 4.5 meters depending on the species.

Dolphins move very easily in the water; they practically do not feel its resistance thanks to special fatty secretions on the skin that facilitate gliding. Interestingly, the friction of water quickly wears off a dolphin’s skin. Therefore, in the deep layers of the skin they have a significant supply of regenerating cells. The dolphin constantly sheds, changing up to 25 layers of skin per day!

Dolphins have small eyes and poor vision. This is due to the fact that animals practically do not use them for hunting. The nostrils are transformed into a blowhole located on the crown.

How do dolphins breathe?

Whales and dolphins are related and can stay underwater for long periods of time without surfacing. The blowhole is closed during such periods. But, like other cetaceans, dolphins still need air underwater and periodically float to the surface to breathe.

Do dolphins have ears?

Dolphins do not have ears. But this does not mean that they have no hearing. Eat! True, it functions differently from other mammals. Sounds are perceived by the inner ear, and air cushions located in the frontal part serve as resonators. But these animals are fluent in echolocation. They accurately determine the location and dimensions of an object by the reflected sound, and the distance to it by the wavelength.

How do dolphins sleep?

Dolphins also have another interesting physiological feature: They never sleep. Animals hang in the water column, periodically rising to the surface to breathe. During rest, they are able to turn off alternately the left and then right hemisphere brain, that is, only one half of the dolphin’s brain sleeps, and the other half is awake.

Where do dolphins live?

The dolphin's habitat is exclusively water bodies. The dolphin lives in almost all places on our planet, with the exception of the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Dolphins live in the sea, in the ocean, and also in large freshwater rivers(Amazonian river dolphin). These mammals love space and move freely over long distances.

Dolphin language

Dolphins are animals social, they live in packs, which can number from 10 to 100 (sometimes more) individuals, fighting off enemies with common efforts. Within the pack there is practically no competition or fights between them; fellow tribesmen coexist peacefully with each other. Dolphins communicate using sounds and signals. Dolphin language extraordinarily varied. The “conversation” of these mammals includes clicking, whistling, barking, and chirping. The spectrum of dolphin voices extends from the lowest frequencies to ultrasound. Moreover, they can put simple sounds into words and sentences, passing information to each other.

What do dolphins eat?

The diet of dolphins includes exclusively fish, with preference given to sardines and anchovies. The hunting method used by the animals is also interesting. A school of dolphins finds a school of fish and uses special sounds to force it into a tight group. As a result of such a hunt most of school becomes prey for dolphins. This feature is often used by seagulls, attacking frightened fish from the air. There are known facts when dolphins helped fishermen by driving a school of fish into their nets.

Sharks and dolphins

Interesting fact: sharks and dolphins live in symbiosis. They often hunt together without showing any aggression towards each other.

Dolphin species

There are 17 genera in the dolphin family. The most interesting species of dolphins:

• White-bellied dolphin (black dolphin, Chilean dolphin) ( Cephalorhynchus eutropia)

lives exclusively on the coast of Chile. An animal with rather modest dimensions - the length of the stocky and rather thick body of this cetacean does not exceed 170 cm. The back and sides of the white-bellied dolphin have grey colour, while the throat, belly area and parts of the flippers adjacent to the body are completely white. The flippers and dorsal fin of the white-bellied dolphin are smaller than those of other dolphin species. This type close to extinction, protected by Chilean authorities.

• Common dolphin ( common dolphin) (Delphinus delphis)

The length of the sea animal often reaches 2.4 meters, the weight of the dolphin varies between 60-80 kilograms. In the area of ​​the back, the common dolphin is colored dark blue or almost black, the belly is white, and along the light sides there is a spectacular stripe of a yellowish-gray hue. This species of dolphin lives in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and feels at ease in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Common dolphin found on the east coast South America, along the coast of New Zealand and South Africa, in the seas of Japan and Korea.

• White-faced dolphin ( Lagenorhynchus albirostris)

a large representative of cetaceans with a body length reaching 3 meters and weighing up to 275 kg. Distinctive feature The white-faced dolphin has a very light, sometimes snow-white muzzle. The habitat of this mammal includes the waters of the North Atlantic, the coast of Portugal and Turkey. The dolphin feeds on fish such as capelin, navaga, flounder, herring, cod, whiting, as well as mollusks and crustaceans.

• Large-toothed dolphin ( Steno bredanensis)

Body length of this marine mammal 2-2.6 meters, weight varies from 90 to 155 kg. The height of the dorsal fin is 18-28 cm. The color of the dolphin is dominated by gray, with whitish spots scattered throughout. This species of dolphin is common off the coast of Brazil, in the Gulf of Mexico and California, and lives in warm waters Caribbean and Red Seas.

• Bottlenose dolphin (large dolphin or bottlenose dolphin) ( Tursiops truncatus)

The length of the animal can vary from 2.3 to 3.6 meters, and weight from 150 to 300 kg. The body color of the bottlenose dolphin depends on its habitat, but generally the species is dark brown. top part body and greyish-white belly. Sometimes a faint pattern in the form of fuzzy stripes or spots is observed on the sides. The bottlenose dolphin lives in the Mediterranean, Red, Baltic and Black Seas, and is often found in the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Japan, Argentina and New Zealand.

• Broad-snouted dolphin (beakless dolphin) ( Peponocephala electra)

distributed in the waters of countries with tropical climate, especially mass populations live along the coast of the Hawaiian Islands. The torpedo-shaped, light gray body of the animal is crowned with a cone-shaped head of dark gray color. The length of the mammal often reaches 3 meters, and an adult weighs more than 200 kg.

• Chinese dolphin ( Sousa chinensis)

This member of the genus of humpback dolphins lives in the waters along the coast of Southeast Asia, but migrates during the breeding season, so it is found in bays, quiet sea lagoons and even rivers washing Australia and the countries of South Africa. The length of the animal can be 2-3.5 meters with a weight of 150-230 kg. Surprisingly, although dolphin calves are born completely black, as they grow, the body color changes first to light gray, with slightly pinkish spots, and adults become almost white. The Chinese dolphin feeds on fish and shellfish.

• Irrawaddy dolphin ( Orcaella brevirostris)

A distinctive feature of this type of dolphin is the complete absence of a beak on the face and a flexible neck, which gained mobility due to several skin and muscle folds behind the head. The body color of the Irrawaddy dolphin can be either light gray with a blue tint or dark gray, while the belly of the animal is always a shade lighter. The length is aquatic mammal reaches 1.5-2.8 meters with a weight of 115-145 kg. The dolphin's habitat covers the waters of the warm Indian Ocean, from the Bay of Bengal to the northern coast of Australia.

• Cruciform dolphin ( Lagenorhynchus cruciger)

lives exclusively in Antarctic and subantarctic waters. The color of the dolphin is black and white, less often – dark gray. The striking white marking covers the sides of the mammal and extends to its muzzle, framing the eye area. The second mark runs longitudinally along the back of the body, intersecting with the first and forming an hourglass pattern. An adult cross-shaped dolphin has a body length of about 2 meters in length, the weight of the dolphin varies between 90-120 kilograms.

• Killer whale (killer whale) ( Orcinus orca)

a mammal that belongs to the dolphin family, the genus of killer whale. The male killer whale is about 10 meters long and weighs around 8 tons. Females are smaller: their length reaches 8.7 meters. The pectoral flippers of killer whales have a wide oval shape. The teeth of killer whales are quite long - up to 13 cm in length. The sides and back of the mammal are black, the throat is white, and on the belly there is white stripe. There are white spots above the eyes. Sometimes completely black or white individuals are found in the waters Pacific Ocean. The killer whale lives in all waters of the world's oceans, except Sea of ​​Azov, Black Sea, Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea.

Dolphin breeding, baby dolphins

Dolphins do not have a pronounced mating season. Reproduction occurs at any time of the year. As a rule, the leader of the pack mates with females. Pregnancy lasts approximately 18 weeks and is quite difficult. The female dolphin becomes clumsy, loses the ability to move quickly and often becomes the prey of enemies. A female dolphin gives birth to 1 calf approximately once every 2 years. Small dolphins, about 50-60 centimeters long, are born right afloat, fully capable and able to follow their mother from the first minutes.

Baby dolphins They feed on their mother's milk, eat often and grow quickly. Feeding stops by the age of one and a half years, when the baby dolphin begins to feed on fish on its own.

The upbringing and training of children is carried out exclusively by females. Male dolphins are not the kind of caring fathers.

• The level of development of dolphins is extremely high, so they devote a lot of time not only to obtaining food, but also to communication, games and even sex. These are perhaps the only animals (except humans, of course), whose sexual relations go beyond procreation. These mammals play with great pleasure: dolphins jump out of the water several meters, simply hovering for a moment or making complex figures, pirouettes, and spins in the air. Playing dolphins often attract the attention of ship passengers.
• Unlike fish, a dolphin swings its tail in an up/down direction.
• In the mouth of a sexually mature dolphin there are 210 sharp teeth, and they play a role only in capturing food, but dolphins swallow their prey without chewing, since they do not have a chewing reflex.
• Dolphins don't sleep! More precisely, only one hemisphere of their brain sleeps, while the other is awake and intuitively pushes the dolphin to the surface of the water to take another breath.
• Currently, it is prohibited to hunt these interesting and charming animals. Despite all the protective measures, the number of dolphins is declining, and some of them are almost extinct. Nowadays, many water parks are working on breeding endangered species, as well as studying and training dolphins.