Bottlenose Dolphin

1. Bottlenose Dolphin Brittany Ahart Lawerence P-B

2. Summary • Bottlenose Dolphins are very smart animals. They talk to each other by whistling, squeaking, and other sounds that means different things. They are mammals. They travel in large groups. They are light to slate gray on the upper part of their body and pale to light pink on the bottom, which allows them to blend into the ocean surroundings. They go from 8 to 12 feet long and can way as much as 1430 pounds.

3. Anatomy • Dolphins have a very hydrodynamic shape. There fluke is or tail is spring loaded and is used to get speed. They have pectoral fins which give them control in directions while swimming. They have a dorsal fin which gives satiability for swimming. They breath from there blow hole when they emerge from the water.

4. Physiology • In colder waters, they have more body fat and blood, and are more suited to deeper diving. They use echolocation to find their food, they locate objects by making a clicking sound and then listening for an echo. Dolphins have very sharp eyesight. They have poor sense of smell. They use clicking noises, sound pulses and body language to interact with each other.

5. Taxonomy • Dolphins are in the phylum cordata which means vertebrates. Vertebrates are living things with backbones and spinal columns. They are in the class mammalia. Mammalia are a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals and can be told apart by a lot of things. Their order is cetacea. Dolphins family is delphinidae. There genus are delphinus. There species is delphis.

6. Ecology • The bottlenose dolphin lives in all parts of the world except the arctic oceans. They live in surface water temperatures of 10° to  32°C (50°-90° F). They can be found from Northern Japan to Australia and from southern California to Chile in the Pacific ocean. In the Atlantic Ocean, bottlenose dolphins are found from Nova Scotia to Patagonia and from Norway to the tip of South Africa. They are also found in the Mediterranean and Black seas. • Bottlenose Dolphins have a careless attitude towards other animals in their environment. They interact with other smaller species of dolphins.

7. Reproduction • Dolphins have baby's like other mammals.They nurse their young from mammary glands. The female is mature at about 5 to 12 years. The male is mature in about 10 to 13 years. Dolphins have more than one mate. They usually reproduce in the spring time. Female have a short time every few years to have a baby. It takes about 11 to 12 months for the baby to be born. They usually go to shallow waters to give birth. The calves stay with their mothers for about 6 years.

8. Importance and Relationship with Humans • Human use bottlenose dolphins for entertainment. They train the dolphins to do tricks and put on a show for people. Example; Seaworld • It is also known that dolphins may help humans while in danger in the ocean such as shark attacks or drowning . • Humans are a major threat to dolphins by killing them and destroying their habitat.

9. Hyperlinks • http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/btlnose.htm • http://www.hickerphoto.com/bottlenose-dolphins-tail-flukes-valencia-aquarium-11190-pictures.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin • http://www.dolphins-world.com/Dolphin_Reproduction.html • http://www.dolphins-world.com/where_do_dolphins_live.html • http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/bottlenose/habitat-&-distribution.htm