Dolphins: Biology, Behavior, and Reproduction, Guías, Proyectos, Investigaciones de Biología

¡Descarga Dolphins: Biology, Behavior, and Reproduction y más Guías, Proyectos, Investigaciones en PDF de Biología solo en Docsity! Dolphins are cetacean mammals of the family Delphinidae. They normally live 30 years or more, and they measure about 3.5 meters long. There exist 40 dolphin species. The big majority of them live in the seas, but some habit in the biggest rivers of the world Dolphins are very intelligent animals; some studies have shown that dolphins are very social animals. They form groups of 5 to 10 dolphins. Dolphins communicate using a list of clicks and whistles; normally, dolphins use clicks for echolocation. They can produce more than 1000 clicks per second, these clicks travel until they find an object, then they return to the dolphin, and let it know the distance, size, and shape of the object. Dolphins are marine mammals, which means that, although they have lungs, they do not breathe like land mammals. Unlike them, they must remember to come to the surface to breathe. Dolphins breathe through a blowhole that they open when they are at the surface and close when they submerge. Dolphins can stay underwater for 10 to 15 minutes. When dolphins dive, they divide their lungs into 2 parts. The lower part of the lungs is compressed, and the upper part stores the air that the dolphin has taken before. Dolphins normally reach they sexual maturity when they are 11 years old. They can have sex all year long but prefer to do it when the water is warmer. Females, once fertilized, take 12 months until the baby is born, the fetus is covered by a placenta that feeds it during the whole embryonic development. During the embryonic development the female eats more than usual, while she is pregnant, the other members of the group will protect her and will also be the ones to bring her food. At the time of birth, the dolphin is helped by other individuals of the group. Usually only one baby is born, but sometimes two babies are born. First the dolphin tail comes out, then the mother pushes it out so that the baby is born. The first thing the mother teaches her baby is how to come up to the surface to breathe. The whole process of raising the dolphin is the mother's responsibility since the male disappears after mating.