If you try to determine the most intellectually developed living creatures on earth after humans, it will probably be possible to put dolphins in the first place. Scientists still do not reliably know the limits of their intelligence, despite all the ongoing experiments and research, but one thing can be safely said - these amazing sea creatures are really very smart. Perhaps even smarter than the most intelligent of great apes. Who knows, maybe it was the dolphins who created the ideal civilization without wars and violence, and look at us with a grin from their seas and oceans?

Dolphin Facts

• Due to the fact that the dolphin lives under water, its auditory receptors are arranged in a special way. This animal has an amazing ability to echolocation. This allows dolphins to pick up sounds and transmit information to each other over a long distance.
• India has become the fourth country to ban the keeping of dolphins in captivity. Earlier similar measures were taken by Costa Rica, Hungary and Chile. The Indians call dolphins "a person or person of a different origin than homo sapiens" ().
• The dolphin is the only mammal whose birth literally begins with the tail, and not with the head.
• Dolphins are mammals, and all mammals have hair. Dolphins, too - in any case, the cubs. They grow "antennae", which at first help the baby find his mother. However, after a while, these hairs disappear.
• Young dolphins stay with their mother for 2-3 years.
• Dolphins immediately swallow food without chewing, as their jaws are not adapted for chewing.
• Despite the fact that dolphins live in the water and look like other marine inhabitants, they are much closer to people than they seem. A dolphin is a warm-blooded animal that gives birth to young and feeds them with milk, and does not spawn. It does not have scales, instead the body is covered with smooth and delicate skin.
• The ancient Greeks punished the culprit with the death penalty for killing a dolphin.
• The brain of an adult dolphin weighs about 1,700 grams, while that of a person weighs 1,400. But the size of the brain in itself does not mean anything, its structure is important. The study of these animals in magnetic resonance imaging showed that the dolphin total number nerve cells and there are even more convolutions in the cerebral cortex than in humans ().
• When swimming, dolphins are able to develop and maintain a speed of 40-50 km / h for a long time.
• In the treatises of the ancient philosophers Pliny, Aristotle, Herodotus, moral nature, friendship and the ability to sympathize are attributed to dolphins. As modern research has shown, they were right.
• Dolphins are generally omnivorous - they eat whatever they find. But they still prefer fish.
• Dolphin eyes create almost panoramic vision. Due to the good location of the eyes, dolphins see objects at about 300 degrees around them.
• Dolphins have no sense of smell at all. This is offset by an extremely subtle sense of taste and keen hearing.
• In nature, there are almost forty species of dolphins, and their closest relatives are killer whales, whales and sea cows ().
• Dolphins communicate using sound signals of different frequencies, which remind us of whistling or clicking. According to the latest scientific data, dolphins can use about 14,000 different sound signals, which is about the same as the vocabulary of an ordinary person.
• Dolphins evolved relatively recently - about ten million years ago.

• Most species of dolphins live in salt water, but there are also freshwater species.
• Each dolphin has its own name to which it responds. This name is assigned to the dolphin by the flock at birth and is retained for life.
• Sharks are afraid of dolphins, as the latter pose a threat to them - defending themselves, they attack the unprotected shark belly with their long nose, and this attack is often fatal for the shark.
• The average dolphin absorbs an amount of fish per day equal to about a quarter of its weight ().
• These amazing animals are able to see well even in almost complete darkness.
• The tail of a dolphin has powerful muscles, and it is located horizontally, and not vertically, like in fish.
• Dolphins have an unusual sleep pattern. Unlike other mammals, only one of the two hemispheres of the brain is alternately in slow-wave sleep.
• In Laguna County, Brazil, dolphins have been working side by side with local fishermen for hundreds of years, driving their catch into nets. In return, the fishermen share with them the fish they catch ().
• It has recently been found that the body language of dolphins largely follows the rules of human verbal communication.
• An absolutely unique feature of dolphins is that they can "look inside" a person, like an ultrasound device: for example, they quickly determine someone else's pregnancy. The feeling of a "new life" is often very emotionally exciting for dolphins, they react violently and joyfully to pregnant women.
• Dolphins breathe consciously, not reflexively like we do. For example, an anesthetized dolphin would not be able to breathe on its own.
• In the Asian river Ganges there are unique Indian dolphins. These animals are blind from birth, so they have a phenomenally sensitive sonar.
• On average, a dolphin can hold its breath for eight to ten minutes.
• Dolphins love to surf. For example, off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands, you can often observe surfer dolphins playing on powerful waves ().
• In the navy Soviet Union dolphins were at one time trained to mine ships. These smart animals were even dropped from an airplane by parachute.
• Dolphins have been reported to commit suicide when they intentionally stop breathing. What caused them is unknown.
• Images and drawings of dolphins were found in Jordan, a country very far from the seas and oceans.
• Pregnancy in dolphins lasts up to 18 months.
• There are foster families in the ocean world too! And unusual. In 2013, oceanographers stumbled upon a foster dolphin in a family of sperm whales.
• Dolphins generally do not live alone. Their flocks have a complex social structure, in which each individual has its own specific place.
• There are cases when dolphins rescued people from sunken ships. Noble animals helped the victims stay afloat and even scared sharks away from them.
• In medieval Europe, the image of a dolphin () was often applied to the coats of arms of noble families.
• Dolphins have an incredible ability to regenerate. In the event of receiving any kind of wound - even a large one - they do not bleed and do not die from infection, as one might assume. Instead, their flesh begins to regenerate at a rapid pace, so that in just a few weeks there is almost no visible scar at the site of a deep wound.

An essay-description of a dolphin and information about dolphins for children will help prepare for the lesson.

Description of a dolphin for children

If you asked me what kind of smart animal I know, then I would certainly name a dolphin. After all, few people know that a dolphin is not a fish at all, but a mammal. Therefore, this "wonder of nature" is one of the most mysterious in the water empire and an extremely intelligent creature.

Very often, dolphins are called the sirens of the sea. All this is due to the wide amplitude of sounds. This is how animals recognize each other and gather in flocks. The peculiarity is that they are capable of self-sacrifice. And they will fight for their relative to the last.

Dolphins have an interesting structure, because they are close to human in size. The color of the skin is more often than series. Their naked, strong and muscular body with developed fins allows them to move quickly in the water. The transition between the nasal and frontal parts is quite well expressed. Although there is no nose as such, because it has grown together into one nostril, this does not prevent them from swimming at depth. Dolphin eyes are tiny, like beads. That's why the world they perceive through sounds.

For some reason, these brave animals fell in love with a person very much. This can be perfectly seen in the dolphinariums. They quickly jump out of the water and happily greet the audience. They are perfectly trainable.

Dolphins have long been a symbol of the sea. There are many legends about them. They rescue those who ask for help at sea. As well as dolphins - invaluable companions of sailors, escort them on distant sea voyages.

Composition on the topic “My favorite animal is a dolphin”

My favorite animal is the dolphin. I think they are especially graceful, beautiful. Dolphins live in the seas and oceans. When you watch a movie, they often show how dolphins save people. I would love to ride a dolphin. You can say this is my dream. I really like going to the dolphinarium, especially stroking cute dolphins on their wet bodies. Dolphins also make very funny sounds, similar to a child who screams with joy when they play with him.

Essay about dolphins

Dolphins are one of the most mysterious animals on our planet.
The intelligence of these marine inhabitants is considered so high that they are called "people of the sea." Scientists say that dolphins are smarter and smarter than all other animals.
Dolphins live in the water, but they are not fish, but mammals from the order of cetaceans. That is, they need air - they breathe with lungs, not gills. People can always see the faces of dolphins on the surface of the sea, because dolphins can stay under water for an average of 3-5 minutes.

Dolphins live in packs. They always help each other and never leave each other in trouble. These highly developed marine animals are very similar to humans, they tend to self-sacrifice. If they hear sounds from the shore, similar to a dolphin's cry for help, they are thrown onto land, while dying.

Dolphin is the embodiment of friendliness and kindness.
Dolphins can make about ten different sounds. The hearing of dolphins is unique and operates on the principle of a sonar. By reflected sounds, dolphins can determine the range of an object, its size, shape. The dolphin orients itself in the space around it much more by hearing than by sight.

A dolphin can eat up to 30 kilograms of live fish per day.
Dolphins live for about 30 years.

Baby dolphins are born about once every two years. At this time, the dolphin is trying to jump high so that the cub can take its first breath.
Dolphins are very touching parents who take care of their cubs for about five years. And even reaching puberty, the cub still remains strongly attached to the mother, and tries to follow her everywhere.

Each dolphin in the ocean has its own name, to which it responds when called by relatives. He receives it 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 to identify a relative by voice, without seeing him, is a couple of trifles 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 you can see them anywhere in the oceans. Most dolphins prefer to live in tropical and subtropical latitudes, but there are those who like colder waters, so they can be seen close to the Arctic, and some species are found both there and there. For example, although white-faced 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-faced dolphin) 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 rivers of the Amazon and Orinoco.

Unfortunately, if earlier representatives of this family met often, now the river dolphin due to habitat loss, pollution environment, reducing 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. major inhabitant sea ​​depths is considered a white-faced dolphin about three meters long. The largest representative is the 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 whales - here the difference is about two meters). They weigh on average from one hundred and fifty to three hundred kilograms, killer whale - about a ton.

The back of sea dolphins is gray, blue, dark brown, black and even pink (albino) colors. The front of the head can be either solid or white (for example, a white-faced dolphin has a white beak and front of the forehead).

In some species, the mouth is rounded in front, the beak-shaped mouth is absent. In others, small sizes, the head ends in an elongated mouth in the form of a flattened “beak”, and the mouth is shaped so that people watching them seem to be always smiling, and therefore they often have an irresistible desire to swim with dolphins. At the same time, even a huge number of teeth of the same cone-shaped shape does not spoil the impression - dolphins have about two hundred of them.

Due to the elongated body and smooth, elastic skin, these animals almost do not feel water resistance during movement. Thanks to this, they are able to move very quickly (the average speed of a dolphin 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 Amazonian river dolphin and several other varieties) see well 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 a blue muzzle and replenishing air supplies through a drawbar, which overlaps 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 packs and do not tolerate loneliness very well. Although they do not have a leader, they perform all actions in concert: they hunt together, raise children, have fun, performing jumps of amazing beauty 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 there are also twice as many convolutions in the cerebral cortex. 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 flock is injured or barely afloat, they support him near the surface so that he cannot drown and choke. They do the same in relation to a person, helping to get to the shore. Some scientists explain why dolphins do this by caring for the population: each individual in the flock is valuable - and everything must be done to keep it alive.

Language

For communication, animals use gestures (turns, jumps, different styles of 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 able to perceive the frequency of vibrations up to 200 thousand/sec, while the human ear - up to 20 thousand.

They also have a four times better ability to analyze the sounds of dolphins, separating frequencies from each other (to find out why dolphins have such abilities, in Lately lots 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 long distances).

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

Dolphin sounds are of two types:

• 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 animals express their emotions by them. Scientists have counted about 186 different type“whistles”, which, like human speech, contain sounds, syllables, words, phrases, paragraphs, context and dialect.

Nutrition

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

They fish in different ways. Sometimes the whole flock of dolphins is looking for her, sometimes - by a separate group or sent in search of a scout.

If hunting takes place on the high seas, dolphins surround a large school of fish, knocking them into a heap, after which they take turns diving there and feeding. If they fish near the shore, the strategy is somewhat different: a flock of dolphins drives schools to 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 couples are unstable and animals change partners every time.

How long the pregnancy lasts is not precisely established, presumably this period is 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, raise her tail high, giving him the opportunity to take a sip of air before falling into the water.

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

Relationships with people

Humans 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 the fishing was banned, the situation improved, but a new trend appeared: to catch these animals for the show (especially since they are very smart and grasp 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.

Their early death is primarily influenced by a too passive lifestyle, even despite constant training for participation in the show, extremely limited space and the quality of water: the lack of a complete set of nutrients and minerals they need in it.

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

The discovery of any intelligent beings is the secret dream of mankind. We are scrupulously studying to get an answer to main question: are we alone in the universe? But what if our brothers in mind live very close, and we just do not notice them?

Dolphins are not fish

Despite the fact that dolphins live in the water and look like other marine inhabitants, they are much closer to people than they seem. A dolphin is a warm-blooded animal that gives birth to young and feeds them with milk, and does not spawn. It does not have scales, instead the body is covered with smooth and delicate skin. Even the fins of dolphins are arranged differently. In the fins of dolphins, unlike the fins of fish, there are humerus bones and even something similar to the phalanges of the fingers. Most likely, dolphins once lived on land, but in the process of evolution they returned to the sea.

Brain

The brain of an adult dolphin weighs about 1,700 grams, while that of a person weighs 1,400. But the size of the brain in itself does not mean anything, its structure is important. The study of these animals in magnetic resonance imaging showed that the total number of nerve cells and convolutions in the dolphin in the cerebral cortex is even greater than in humans.

Communication

As you know, dolphins communicate using sound signals of different frequencies, which remind us of whistling or clicking. According to the latest scientific data, dolphins can use about 14,000 different sound signals, which is about the same as the vocabulary of an ordinary person. Each dolphin has its own name to which it responds. It was found that this name is assigned to the dolphin by the flock at birth and is retained for life.

habits

Dolphins generally do not live alone. Their packs have a complex social structure, in which each individual has its own specific place. Dolphins are extremely mobile, inquisitive behavior. While most wild animals avoid human contact or show aggression, dolphins love to play and communicate with people, especially children. They show benevolence not only to humans, but also to some other animals. In the entire history of observations, not a single case of a dolphin attack on a person has been recorded. Humans attack dolphins all the time.

Dolphin Speed ​​Mystery

In 1936, the British zoologist Sir James Gray (Sir James Gray) drew attention to the enormous speed (up to 37 km / h, according to him), which dolphins manage to develop. Having made the necessary calculations, Gray showed that, according to the laws of hydrodynamics, it is impossible to achieve such a high speed with the muscle strength that dolphins possess. This riddle is known as the Gray paradox. The search for its solution to one degree or another continues to this day. At different times, various teams of researchers put forward various explanations for the phenomenal speed of dolphins, but there is still no unambiguous and universally recognized answer to this question.

Ability to regenerate

Dolphins have an incredible ability to heal themselves. In the event of receiving any kind of wound - even a large one - they do not bleed and do not die from infection, as one might assume. Instead, their flesh begins to regenerate at a rapid pace, so that after only a few weeks, a deep wound, such as from a shark's teeth, leaves almost no visible scars. Interestingly, the behavior of injured animals is practically no different from normal. This gives reason to believe that nervous system dolphins is capable of blocking pain sensations in critical situations.

official recognition

The Government of India recently removed dolphins from the animal category and gave them the status of "non-human beings". Thus, India became the first country to recognize the presence of intelligence and self-awareness in dolphins. In this regard, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of India has banned any performance using dolphins and called for respect for their special rights.

Do you think dolphins are sentient beings?

Black Sea bottlenose dolphin - one of the subspecies of bottlenose dolphins along with the Indian and Australian bottlenose dolphins. The number of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin is constantly declining, and this has led to its being listed in the Red Book of Russia.

Appearance of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin

bottlenose dolphin is the most large view from the dolphin family, can reach 3-3.5 meters in length. Weight up to 300 kg, males are slightly larger than females.

The head is large, about 60 cm, the forehead is high and sloping, the eyes are small, the nose is moderately extended forward, there are small, but strong and sharp teeth.

The lower jaw protrudes slightly, giving the impression that the dolphin is smiling. The dorsal fin is high, crescent-shaped and has a wide base.

The pectoral fins are longer and narrower than the dorsal. Two groups of Black Sea bottlenose dolphins are distinguished by color. In the first type, the transition from the back of a dark color to a light, almost white belly is pronounced and has a clear border, while in the second type, this border is blurred and the transition is smoother.

Habitat of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin

The Black Sea bottlenose dolphin swims in the waters of the Black Sea, most often in the coastal zone, but can also live at depth. This is due to the fact that she has a bottom way of searching for food. The bottlenose dolphin can dive to a depth of 100 meters, holding its breath for 5-10 minutes.

Basically, bottlenose dolphins hunt in packs and one bottlenose dolphin can eat up to 15 kg of food per day. Bottlenose dolphins feed on different types of fish, but they can also eat octopuses, clams, shrimp, etc.

The nature and behavior of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin

Most often, bottlenose dolphins swim in small flocks in a certain area. The migration of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphins is poorly studied; these mammals are mainly sedentary.

Bottlenose dolphins are very active during the day, and by night their activity is significantly reduced. They sleep at the surface of the water, periodically opening and closing their eyelids. During sleep, one or the other hemisphere of the brain is alternately awake.

Bottlenose dolphins are very fast swimmers and can reach speeds of up to 40 km / h, and then jump out of the water for 5 meters. They have a highly developed voice apparatus, which they control very skillfully. Dolphins communicate using echolocation, making a variety of sounds: clicks, whistles, claps, etc.
Bottlenose dolphins are absolutely non-aggressive animals, when meeting with a person they are friendly and show interest. Dolphins love to swim around surfers and swimmers, sometimes even rescuing them from sharks or showing them the way to shore. In captivity, they are easily trained and are happy to follow commands, showing a variety of tricks. They are very sociable and even try to imitate a person with sounds and movements.

If a dolphin that lived in captivity is released into the sea, then it will never swim far, but will always return, because bottlenose dolphins are very attached to humans.

The number of individuals of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin

The number of individuals of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin is very small: about 7 thousand and is constantly decreasing.

The main dangers for bottlenose dolphins, as well as for all other inhabitants of the aquatic environment, are the pollution of the oceans, as well as the constant increase in the intensity of shipping.

Very often, bottlenose dolphins get entangled in fishing nets, from which they cannot get out and die; poaching also negatively affects the number of bottlenose dolphins. Such a man-made problem as noise pollution from ships, oil platforms, sonars, underwater explosions during military exercises and seismic surveys also leads to a rapid reduction in the number of bottlenose dolphins in the Black Sea. Dolphins lose their orientation in space, which leads to their mass beaching.

Reproduction of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins can mate throughout the year, but traditionally the rut occurs in spring and autumn. A pregnant female bears a cub for 12 months, by the end of pregnancy she becomes very clumsy and slow. The baby is born tail first, and the mother helps him swim to the surface so that he takes his first breath. At first, the cub feeds only on mother's milk, which is very fatty and nutritious, and constantly swims next to her, but gradually becomes more independent and stops eating milk by about a year and a half.

At 5-7 years old, bottlenose dolphins reach sexual maturity, and they live up to 20-25 years. In captivity, the bottlenose dolphin breeds well. In aquariums and dolphinariums, there have even been cases of crossing bottlenose dolphins with other species of dolphins.

Protection of the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin

The species of bottlenose dolphin is included in the list of animals of the International Red Book, and the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin subspecies is listed in the Red Book of Russia.

In domestic waters, fishing for the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin has been strictly prohibited since 1966; various measures are constantly being taken to analyze the number of these mammals and their habitats. Scientists attach special sensors to their fins that allow researchers to study the location and behavior of bottlenose dolphins.

Every year a few individuals Black Sea bottlenose dolphins caught for dolphinariums and oceanariums.

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