Diving into the World of Dolphins

by Abigail Gezae, age 11

Growing up, my favorite sea animal was the dolphin. These sea creatures are mammals of the sea and are great swimmers, compared to other fish.

Dolphins have interesting features from their head to their tails. Starting at the head, dolphins have corn-shaped teeth. Looking at their bodies, dolphins have flippers that help guide them through the water. These animals live about 20 years, and in some cases even longer. Dolphins spend 98% of their time underwater, but they still need to resurface to breathe air. Near the top of the dolphin’s head, they have a blowhole which is used for breathing.

Dolphins have a superpower, which is their hearing. They can listen extremely well, even though their ears are small and hard to see. They use their bones to sense frequencies. When dolphins are in a pod – a group of dolphins – they call one another by using their bones to accept frequencies. When dolphins hunt, up to 300 dolphins can form a pod.

Echolocation helps dolphins find food and sense danger. Dolphins can accept the click noise as fast as 20 to 800 per second. To communicate or alert other dolphins, they will send frequencies that flow through the water that tell them the size, shape, speed, and direction it came from.

Dolphins are great sea animals and are cool animals to learn about. Their incredible hearing abilities and communication skills make them successful and intelligent mammals of the sea.

[Source: Oceans Britannica]