Baby white-sided or bottlenose dolphin. Common dolphin
Area
Tropical and temperate waters of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.
Features of morphology
The body length of adult animals is 160–220 cm, coloration with a double light field on the side, expanding towards the ends of the body, the anterior part of this field is often light yellow. The dorsal fin is high, narrow, sickle-shaped; muzzle with an elongated long snout. It differs from the bottlenose dolphin in the coloring of the sides of the body and in its numerous small teeth.
Features of biology
Found in all Black Sea waters of Crimea and in the Kerch Strait. Forms large accumulations in the open sea. It feeds on small schooling fish (anchovy, sprat, horse mackerel). The probable age of sexual maturity is 5–10 years, the rate of reproduction in the Black Sea is unknown.
Threats
Deterioration food base in connection with the invasion of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi and non-compliance by fishermen with fish catching standards; epizootics of various origins.
Security measures
Included in Annex II of the Berne Convention, Annex II of the Bonn Convention, Annex I of the ACCOBAMS Agreement and Annex II of the International Convention of CITES.
Information sources
Barabash-Nikiforov, 1940; Kleinenberg, 1956; Mikhalev, 2008; CHKU, 2009.
Compiled by: Startsev D. B. Photo: Redfern J. (http://commons.wikimedia.org/) (public domain).
Common dolphin
, also called Belobochka, is a skilled swimmer who can reach speeds of up to 45 km/h. Dolphins- These are friendly pack animals.
DIMENSIONS
Body length: 1.7-2.6 m.
Weight: 80-120 kg.
Number of teeth: 160-200 pieces.
REPRODUCTION
Puberty: from 4-5 years.
Mating season: in the northern part Atlantic Ocean- October December, most of Cubs are born in September and October.
Pregnancy: 10-11 months.
Number of cubs: 1.
LIFESTYLE
Habits: stay in flocks.
Food: Mainly herring and sardines, as well as fish living in coastal waters.
Sounds: squeaks, whistles, sounds reminiscent of creaking.
Life expectancy: up to 25 years.
The common dolphin has a smooth, spindle-shaped body. The back is usually black with a brown or purple pattern, the belly is white, but the color can vary quite a lot. Every few minutes the dolphin rises to the surface to fill its lungs atmospheric air.
REPRODUCTION. Dolphins are not a monogamous species, so they look for new partners every mating season. But dolphins are quite characterized by kindred feelings. They support each other in difficult situations, for example, females help other females during childbirth. 10-11 months after mating, the female gives birth to one baby. The baby is born tail first, and the female needs to immediately bring it to the surface so that the baby’s lungs are filled with air. She is usually helped by 1-2 females. The “midwives” push the woman in labor to the surface and look to see if there is a shark swimming nearby. The female feeds the cub with milk. The baby suckles from its mother quickly, with frequent breaks, emerging every few minutes to replenish the air reserves in its lungs. Newborns swim quickly, but during the first two weeks they stay close to their mother.
LIFESTYLE. Ordinary dolphins, or, as they are also called, common dolphins, are very sociable and friendly creatures. They are more often kept in families consisting of several generations of the same female. However, males and nursing mothers with young animals, as well as pregnant females, sometimes form separate temporary flocks. IN mating season sexually mature females and males gather in common schools. Dolphins inhabiting the warm coastal waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres also appear in places where their relative, the bottlenose dolphin, lives.
The life of dolphins continues in search of food, hunting and playing. Dolphins communicate with each other in a special language, using a wide range of sounds. They breathe atmospheric air, so they often float to the surface to fill their lungs with it. Most species love games and fun. Dolphins are one of the funniest animals. Dolphins love to jump out of the water in groups vertically upward, i.e. "candle".
FOOD. The dolphin feeds mainly on sardines and herring. Since the dolphin is forced to regularly rise to the surface to fill its lungs with air, it often preys on pelagic fish that live in upper layers water, as well as shrimp and cephalopods. Following schools of herring, sardines, capelin, mackerel or mullet, dolphins swim to the coast North Africa. During the cold season, when schools migrate to other places or when they are caught, dolphins leave the region.
Dolphins
communicate with each other using a special language - a special set of sounds: whistles, squeaks and creaks. Dolphins' sense of smell is rather poorly developed, so during joint hunting they communicate using sound signals. In addition, ordinary dolphins have a well-developed echo location. Using ultrasonic waves, they find prey, determine its type, size, location, and the speed at which it moves.
Did you know?? An ordinary dolphin can stay underwater for no more than 3-4 minutes, while a bottlenose dolphin can dive for as long as 15 minutes.
With each breath, the air in the dolphin's lungs is renewed by about 90 percent. In most mammals, only 15 percent of the air volume is replaced during inspiration.
There are no sweat glands in the skin of a dolphin; it regulates body temperature with the help of fins: blood, flushed from the animals’ swimming, flows through large vessels penetrating through the layer of fat in the fins near the surface of the skin, thus giving off excess heat to cold water.
SPEED COMPARISON. The dolphin swims quickly, but there are even more agile swimmers - whales and sharks.
Orca: 55 km/h.
Herring shark: 45 km/h.
Californian sea lion: 40 km/h.
Atlantic salmon: 38 km/h.
LIVING PLACE. Coastal waters of tropical and temperate climatic zones, large populations living in Cherny and Mediterranean seas. Dolphins, which feed on fish swimming in schools, constantly roam from place to place.
Preservation. In the past, residents of the Black Sea region often hunted white sided whales. Nowadays, dolphins are dying from becoming entangled in large fishing nets.
If you liked our site, tell your friends about us! Delphinus delphis listen)) - a species of dolphins, a representative of the genus white sided dolphins (Delphinus).
Appearance
The back of the common dolphin is black or brown-blue in color, and the belly is light. It has a stripe on its sides, the color of which changes from light yellow to gray. In general, coloring may vary depending on the region where it lives. Having different colors, the white-sided dolphin is one of the most colorful representatives of the cetacean order. Its length can reach 2.4 m, and its weight ranges from 60 to 80 kg.
Spreading
Common dolphin is found in different parts the world's oceans, primarily in tropical and temperate latitudes. Its habitats form separate, often unconnected regions. One of the largest areas is the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea and the northeast Atlantic Ocean. The common dolphin is the most widespread member of its family around the European continent. Another large population lives in the eastern Pacific Ocean. In addition, they are found off the east coast of North and South America, off the coast of South Africa, around Madagascar, in the Seychelles, off the coast of Oman, around Tasmania and New Zealand, in the seas between Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
Being inhabitants of the open sea, common dolphins are only rarely found in close proximity to the shore. These animals feel most comfortable at a water temperature of 10 to 25 °C.
Behavior
Like all dolphins, the common dolphin feeds on fish, sometimes also cephalopods. It is the most toothed mammal (210 teeth). It is one of the fastest-swimming dolphin species and often accompanies ships. Like other species, it forms complex social alliances that can include more than a thousand individuals. In summer, these huge groups separate, and the dolphins continue swimming in smaller groups. Members of the same group take care of each other. Dolphins have been observed supporting wounded dolphins and carrying them to the surface so that they can take in air.
The birth of a young dolphin can take up to two hours. The tail is born first to prevent the baby from suffocating at birth. After birth, the mother carries the baby to the surface so that it can take its first breath. During childbirth, the mother animal is protected by the rest of the group from possible attacks sharks Twins are born extremely rarely and usually do not survive because there is not enough mother's milk. The cubs stay around three years with their mother, from which they feed on milk for about a year.
Population and threats
Taxonomy
When asked how many species belong to the genus Delphinus, there is no clear answer. Most zoologists have always recognized only one species - the common dolphin. Others highlighted additional types, such as the East Pacific dolphin ( Delphinus bairdii) or dolphin Delphinus tropicalis living in the Indian Ocean. All of them have not been officially recognized, although about 20 species have been described and proposed.
Since the 1990s, there has been a growing number of zoologists recognizing the second species: Delphinus capensis. It has a longer stigma. Is he really a separate species or simply a subspecies or variant of the same species remains a matter of debate.
In addition to Delphinus delphis delphis itself, there is a subspecies of the Black Sea common dolphin (Delphinus delphis ponticus Barabash, 1935).
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An excerpt characterizing the common dolphin
- Eh, fool, ugh! – the old man said, spitting angrily. Some time passed in silent movement, and the same joke was repeated again.At five o'clock in the evening the battle was lost at all points. More than a hundred guns were already in the hands of the French.
Przhebyshevsky and his corps laid down their weapons. Other columns, having lost about half of the people, retreated in frustrated, mixed crowds.
The remnants of the troops of Lanzheron and Dokhturov, mingled, crowded around the ponds on the dams and banks near the village of Augesta.
At 6 o'clock only at the Augesta dam the hot cannonade of the French alone could still be heard, who had built numerous batteries on the descent of the Pratsen Heights and were hitting our retreating troops.
In the rearguard, Dokhturov and others, gathering battalions, fired back at the French cavalry that was pursuing ours. It was starting to get dark. On the narrow dam of Augest, on which for so many years the old miller sat peacefully in a cap with fishing rods, while his grandson, rolling up his shirt sleeves, was sorting out silver quivering fish in a watering can; on this dam, along which for so many years the Moravians drove peacefully on their twin carts loaded with wheat, in shaggy hats and blue jackets and, dusted with flour, with white carts leaving along the same dam - on this narrow dam now between wagons and cannons, under the horses and between the wheels crowded people disfigured by the fear of death, crushing each other, dying, walking over the dying and killing each other only so that, after walking a few steps, to be sure. also killed.
Every ten seconds, pumping up the air, a cannonball splashed or a grenade exploded in the middle of this dense crowd, killing and sprinkling blood on those who stood close. Dolokhov, wounded in the arm, on foot with a dozen soldiers of his company (he was already an officer) and his regimental commander, on horseback, represented the remnants of the entire regiment. Drawn by the crowd, they pressed into the entrance to the dam and, pressed on all sides, stopped because a horse in front fell under a cannon, and the crowd was pulling it out. One cannonball killed someone behind them, the other hit in front and splashed Dolokhov’s blood. The crowd moved desperately, shrank, moved a few steps and stopped again.
Walk these hundred steps, and you will probably be saved; stand for another two minutes, and everyone probably thought he was dead. Dolokhov, standing in the middle of the crowd, rushed to the edge of the dam, knocking down two soldiers, and fled onto the slippery ice that covered the pond.
“Turn,” he shouted, jumping on the ice that was cracking under him, “turn!” - he shouted at the gun. - Holds!...
The ice held it, but it bent and cracked, and it was obvious that not only under a gun or a crowd of people, but under him alone it would collapse. They looked at him and huddled close to the shore, not daring to step on the ice yet. The regiment commander, standing on horseback at the entrance, raised his hand and opened his mouth, addressing Dolokhov. Suddenly one of the cannonballs whistled so low over the crowd that everyone bent down. Something splashed into the wet water, and the general and his horse fell into a pool of blood. No one looked at the general, no one thought to raise him.
- Let's go on the ice! walked on the ice! Let's go! gate! can't you hear! Let's go! - suddenly, after the cannonball hit the general, countless voices were heard, not knowing what or why they were shouting.
One of the rear guns, which was entering the dam, turned onto the ice. Crowds of soldiers from the dam began to run to the frozen pond. The ice cracked under one of the leading soldiers and one foot went into the water; he wanted to recover and fell waist-deep.
The nearest soldiers hesitated, the gun driver stopped his horse, but shouts were still heard from behind: “Get on the ice, come on, let’s go!” let's go! And screams of horror were heard from the crowd. The soldiers surrounding the gun waved at the horses and beat them to make them turn and move. The horses set off from the shore. The ice holding the foot soldiers collapsed in a huge piece, and about forty people who were on the ice rushed forward and backward, drowning one another.
The cannonballs still whistled evenly and splashed onto the ice, into the water and, most often, into the crowd covering the dam, ponds and shore.
On Pratsenskaya Mountain, in the very place where he fell with the flagpole in his hands, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky lay, bleeding, and, without knowing it, moaned a quiet, pitiful and childish groan.
By evening he stopped moaning and became completely quiet. He didn't know how long his oblivion lasted. Suddenly he felt alive again and suffering from a burning and tearing pain in his head.
“Where is it, this high sky, which I did not know until now and saw today?” was his first thought. “And I didn’t know this suffering either,” he thought. - Yes, I didn’t know anything until now. But where am I?
He began to listen and heard the sounds of approaching horses and the sounds of voices speaking French. He opened his eyes. Above him was again the same high sky with floating clouds rising even higher, through which a blue infinity could be seen. He did not turn his head and did not see those who, judging by the sound of hooves and voices, drove up to him and stopped.
The horsemen who arrived were Napoleon, accompanied by two adjutants. Bonaparte, driving around the battlefield, gave the last orders to strengthen the batteries firing at the Augesta Dam and examined the dead and wounded remaining on the battlefield.
- De beaux hommes! [Beauties!] - said Napoleon, looking at the killed Russian grenadier, who, with his face buried in the ground and the back of his head blackened, was lying on his stomach, throwing one already numb arm far away.
In temperate and tropical latitudes of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans such a representative of the dolphin family as the white-sided dolphin lives. It is also called the common dolphin. This type It is also found in the Indian Ocean, but there it is relatively rare. But in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas it is common. Swims into the Black and Red Seas and loves the waters Gulf of Mexico. Sometimes it ends up in Norwegian waters and even swims to the Arctic. It prefers open waters, and is found near the shore only from time to time.
Description
The length of representatives of the species varies from 1.6 to 2.4 meters. Weight is 70-100 kg. Some individuals weigh up to 136 kg. Males are longer and heavier than females. The back color can be black or blue-brown. The belly is light. On the sides there is a stripe with heterogeneous colors. At the beginning of the body, its color can be light gray, yellow or golden, and at the end it is dirty gray. The color of the body greatly depends on the specific region of habitat. Young dolphins have paler colors than adults.
Reproduction and lifespan
Males and females reach sexual maturity at the age of 12-15 years. Pregnancy lasts 10-12 months. One cub is born with a body length of 70-90 cm and a weight of about 10 kg. The female immediately raises it to the surface of the water so that the baby takes its first breath. Milk feeding lasts about a year. At 3 years old, a young dolphin becomes independent. IN sea elements Common dolphins live up to 35 years.
Behavior and nutrition
Representatives of the species live in large groups, which can number hundreds and even thousands of individuals. But such large groups are not a single whole. They consist of smaller groups with stable social ties. In these small groups, everyone knows each other and represents a single family.
Common dolphins swim quickly. They reach speeds of up to 60 km/h. Therefore, they often accompany high-speed ships. The diet is quite varied. It consists of many types of fish, squid and octopus. All this marine life is obtained at a depth of less than 200 meters. Fish include herring, sardines, anchovies, hake, and Atlantic mackerel. A dolphin eats about 10 kg of fish per day.
It should be said that different populations of common dolphins have different statuses. Thus, the Mediterranean population is characterized as endangered. It is currently protected by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. This convention also applies to other representatives of the species living in the Atlantic. In addition, countries are guided by the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans in the North-East Atlantic Ocean and the Northern Seas.
There is also a Memorandum on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans. They are used in Malaysian waters and West Africa. So in the 21st century, representatives of the species are protected by legislative acts on all sides, and individual problems with numbers should soon disappear.
First of all, it must be said that dolphins are not fish, despite the fact that they live in water. These creatures are mammals and viviparous, just like all inhabitants of the animal world. In this case, the female gives birth to only one baby, and not many. And the mother bears her child from ten to eighteen months. The name of the animal, which dates back to the ancient Greek language, is translated as “newborn baby.” What this is connected with is now difficult to determine. Perhaps dolphins received this name for their piercing cry, similar to the cry of a child, or perhaps for their resemblance to a human fetus in the womb.
Dolphins are characterized by the presence in both jaws of a fairly significant number of uniform conical teeth, both nasal openings are usually connected into one transverse crescent-shaped opening at the top of the skull, the head is relatively small, often with a pointed muzzle, the body is elongated, and there is a dorsal fin. Very mobile and dexterous, voracious predators, living mostly socially, are found in all seas, rise high in rivers, feed mainly on fish, mollusks, and crustaceans; sometimes they attack their relatives. They are also distinguished by their curiosity and traditional good attitude to a person. Some dolphins have a mouth extended forward in the form of a beak; in others the head is rounded in front, without a beak-like mouth.
Dolphin species
There are more than seventy species of dolphins in nature. They have specific similarities with each other, such as viviparity, feeding on milk, the presence of respiratory organs, smooth skin and much more. Also in dolphins different types has its own characteristics. Some animals have an elongated nasal part, while others, on the contrary, have a depressed one. They may differ in color and body weight.
Common dolphin or white sided cetacean - one of the most gregarious, playful and fast cetaceans. Its speed reaches 36 km/h, and when it rides a ship wave near the bow of high-speed ships, it reaches more than 60 km/h. Jumps "candle" up to 5 m, and horizontally up to 9 m. Immerses for 8 minutes, but usually for a time from 10 seconds to 2 minutes.
The Black Sea common dolphin feeds in the upper layer of the sea and does not dive deeper than 60-70 m, but the ocean form catches fish living at depths of 200-250 m. When gathering food, the common dolphin gathers in large herds, sometimes together with other species - pilot whales and short-headed dolphins. It treats humans peacefully, never bites, but does not tolerate captivity well.
White sideds often live in families, which are supposed to be composed of the offspring of several generations of the same female. However, males and lactating females with young animals, as well as pregnant females, sometimes form separate (apparently temporary) schools. During the period of sexual activity, mating groups of sexually mature males and females are also observed. Mutual assistance reaction has been developed.
They live up to 30 years. The sound signals of white sided dolphins are as diverse as those of bottlenose dolphins: quacks, howls, squeaks, croaking, cat calls, but whistling predominates. There were up to 19 different signals. In this species, unusually strong calls, the meaning of which has not been determined, called "shot" (duration 1 s) and "rumble" (duration 3 s) were found to have very high sound pressure (from 30 to 160 bar) and a frequency of 21 kHz.
bottlenose dolphin lives sedentary, or wanders in small flocks. The bottlenose dolphin's inclination to the coastal zone is explained by the bottom nature of its feeding. For food it dives in the Black Sea to a depth of up to 90 m, in the Mediterranean - up to 150 m. There is information that in the Gulf of Guinea it dives to 400-500 m. Under experimental conditions in the USA, it was noted to dive up to 300 m. While hunting for fish, The bottlenose dolphin moves unevenly, jerkily, with frequent sharp turns. Her breathing pauses last from a few seconds to 6-7 minutes, up to a maximum of a quarter of an hour. Most active during the day.
Bottlenose dolphins in captivity breathe 1-4 times per minute, their heart beats 80-140 (on average 100) times per minute. The bottlenose dolphin can reach speeds of up to 40 km/h and jump to a height of up to 5 m.
The bottlenose dolphin skillfully controls the complex vocal apparatus, in which the most significant are three pairs of air sacs connected to the nasal canal. To communicate with each other, bottlenose dolphins emit communication signals with a frequency of 7 to 20 kHz: whistling, barking (chasing prey), meowing (feeding), clapping (terrifying their relatives), etc. When searching for prey and orienting themselves under water, they emit echolocation clicks that resemble creaking of rusty door hinges, frequency 20-170 kHz. American scientists recorded 17 communicative signals in adult bottlenose dolphins, and only 6 in calves. Obviously, the signal system becomes more complex with the age and individual experience of the animal. Of this number, 5 signals turned out to be common for bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales and white drums.
Bottlenose dolphins, like all cetaceans, sleep at the surface of the water, usually at night, and during the day only after feeding, periodically opening their eyelids for 1-2 seconds and closing them for 15-30 seconds. A weak blow from the hanging tail from time to time forces the sleeping animal out of the water for another respiratory act. In sleeping dolphins, one hemisphere sleeps alternately, while the other is awake at this time.
Features of behavior
An interesting fact is that dolphins use echolocation to hunt. Their hearing is designed in such a way that, based on the reflected signal, animals can determine the number of objects, their volume and degree of danger. Dolphins can deafen their prey with high-frequency sounds, paralyzing them. These creatures hunt only in packs, and they also cannot live alone. Dolphin families sometimes number about a hundred individuals. Thanks to these abilities, the animal is never left without abundant food.
Interesting Facts from the life of dolphins include Gray's Paradox. James Gray established back in the thirties of the twentieth century that the speed of an animal in water is thirty-seven kilometers per hour, which contradicts the muscular capabilities of the body. According to the scientist, dolphins need to change the streamlining of their bodies in order to develop such speed. Experts from the USA and USSR puzzled over this issue, but a final decision was never made.
Dolphins have a weak sense of smell, but excellent vision and absolutely unique hearing. Producing powerful sound impulses, they are capable of echolocation, which allows them to perfectly navigate in the water, find each other and food.
Dolphin speech
Dolphins are capable of producing a wide range of sounds using the nasal air sac located under the blowhole. There are roughly three categories of sounds: frequency-modulated whistles, explosive pulse sounds, and clicks. Clicks are the loudest sounds made by marine life.
Dolphins have a sound signaling system. Signals of two types: echolocation (sonar), serve animals to explore the situation, detect obstacles, prey, and “chirps” or “whistles”, for communication with relatives, also expressing emotional condition dolphin
The signals are emitted at very high, ultrasonic frequencies that are inaccessible to human hearing. The sound perception of people is in the frequency band up to 20 kHz, dolphins use a frequency of up to 200 kHz.
Scientists have already counted 186 different “whistles” in the “speech” of dolphins. They have approximately the same levels of organization of sounds as a person: six, that is, sound, syllable, word, phrase, paragraph, context, they have their own dialects.
In 2006, a team of British researchers from the University of St. Andrews conducted a series of experiments, the results of which suggest that dolphins are capable of assigning and recognizing names.
Communication with dolphins has a positive effect on the human body, especially on the child’s psyche. British experts came to this conclusion back in 1978. Since that time, the development of “dolphin therapy” began. It is now used to treat many physical and mental illnesses, including autism, and other ailments. Swimming with dolphins relieves chronic pain, improves immunity and even helps children develop speech.
An incredibly romantic fact from the “personal” life of dolphins - ethologists studying Amazon dolphins discovered that males give gifts to potential partners. So, what gift is waiting for a female dolphin to consider as a candidate for procreation? Of course, a bouquet of river algae!
India has become the 4th country to ban the keeping of dolphins in captivity. Previously, similar measures were taken by Costa Rica, Hungary and Chile. Indians call dolphins “a person or person of other origin than “homo sapiens.” Accordingly, the “person” must have its own rights, and its exploitation for commercial purposes is legally unacceptable. Scientists who analyze animal behavior (ethologists) say that it is very difficult to determine the line separating human intelligence and emotions from the nature of dolphins.
Dolphins not only have a "vocabulary" of up to 14,000 sounds that allows them to communicate with each other, but they also have self-awareness, "social awareness" and emotional empathy - a willingness to help newborns and the sick by pushing them to the surface of the water.
Dolphins are famous for their playful behavior and the fact that, for fun, they can blow air bubbles underwater in the form of a ring using a blowhole. These may be large clouds of bubbles, streams of bubbles, or individual bubbles. Some of them act as a kind of communication signals.
Within a school, dolphins form very close bonds. Scientists have noticed that dolphins care for sick, wounded and elderly relatives, and a female dolphin can help another female during a difficult birth. At this time, the dolphins nearby, protecting the female in labor, swim around her for protection.
Another proof of the high intelligence of dolphins is the fact that adults sometimes teach their young to use special tools for hunting. For example, they “dress” sea sponges on their muzzles in order to avoid injury when hunting fish that can hide in bottom sediments of sand and sharp pebbles.
The oldest dolphin in captivity was named Nellie. She lived in the park marine mammals"Marineland" (Florida) and died when she was 61 years old.
When dolphins hunt, they use interesting tactics to drive fish into a trap. They begin to circle around the school of fish, closing the ring, forcing the fish to form a tight ball. Then, one by one, the dolphins snatch the fish from the center of the school, preventing it from leaving.
Reproduction
The life of dolphins is in many ways similar to the life of toothed cetaceans. Like whales, dolphins give birth to their young in the water. At the moment of birth, the female raises her tail high above the water, the baby dolphin is born in the air and manages to inhale air before falling into the water.
For the first hours, the baby dolphin swims like a float, in a vertical position, slightly moving its front flippers: it has accumulated a sufficient supply of fat in the womb and its density is less than the density of water.
The female dolphin carries the calf for ten months. It is born half the length of its mother's body. Like a baby whale, when sucking, a baby dolphin's lips are replaced by a tongue rolled into a tube: it covers the mother's nipple with it, and she splashes milk into his mouth. All this happens under water: the respiratory canal of cetaceans is separated from the esophagus, and the dolphin, like whales, can swallow food under water without fear of choking. Dolphins give birth to one calf every two years. Three years later he becomes an adult. Dolphins live up to 25-30 years.
