Dolphins are really smart. It is said that they use about 90 percent of their brains, while man uses around 10 percent of his. I guess this explains why Flipper was so smart. We really don’t know a lot about dolphins that are in their natural environment. There is still much to learn. We do know that they are as intelligent as chimps and dogs. They can learn to perform simple tricks.

Dolphins typically swim around 3 to 7 miles per hour. They can get up to 20 miles per hour, if they work hard to do so. The dolphin’s body is streamlined, which helps it move good through the water. It’s not exactly known how deep dolphins dive in the water. In most cases, dolphins dive no deeper than 150 feet deep.

A dolphin’s diet mainly consist of fish and squid. Dolphins do have teeth, but they are mainly used for catching their food. Dolphins don’t chew like we do. They just swallow their food whole.

Dolphins are really fascinating on how they communicate. They use sound, vision, touch, and taste. Scientists don’t believe they have a language like humans. However, they have thier own unique whistle, and other dolphins are believed that they can distinguish the whistling sounds.

There are several types of dolphins. The bottle nose dolphin is the most common one. It’s the one you think of, when you hear dolphins. Yes, it’s just like Flipper! Also, another one that is very popular, but most don’t know it is a dolphin, is the killer whale. It’s true that the killer whale is in the dolphin family. Bottlenose Dolphins get about 10 feet long as full grown adults. A killer whale calf is about 8 to 9 feet long at birth. The adult killer whales can get to be over 20 feet in length. Now that’s big!

Dolphins, like you and me, are mammals. They have teeth, are warm-blooded, have a four-chambered heart, and nurse their young from mammary glands. Dolphins also have hair — but not very much! They are a great animal to learn about, and to watch in the ocean. Hopefully in time, we can learn so much more about these great animals.