26 Interesting Facts about Dolphins

Facts about Dolphins

Fact Number 1
Dolphins have the longest memory in the entire animal kingdom

Fact Number 2
Just one-half of a dolphin’s brain goes to sleep at a time.

Fact Number 3
A dolphin’s inbuilt natural sonar or echolocation is rare in nature and is far superior to either the bat’s sonar or human-made sonar.

Fact Number 4
Dolphins avoid getting the bends like a human would if they went unnderwater too quickly by completely collapsing their ribcage, which forces the air pressure out of the lungs and into the windpipe and complex air chambers below its blowhole.

Fact Number 5
A dolphin can produce whistles for communication and clicks for sonar at the same time, which would be like a human speaking in two voices, with two different pitches, holding two different conversations.

Fact Number 6
Dolphins get water from the foods they eat, so they don’t drink. They have the same reaction to drinking salt water as humans do: it would dry them out until they died of dehydration.

Fact Number 7
Among the different species of dolphins, life spans range between 12 and 80 years. Bottlenose dolphins live into their 50s, and orcas can live into their 80s. Typically, the bigger the dolphin, the longer the lifespan.

Fact Number 8
Because dolphins are connected to their mothers by an umbilical cord inside a womb, dolphins have belly buttons.

Fact Number 9
Every year, a dolphin’s teeth grow a new layer, similar to the rings inside a tree trunk. Scientists can tell how old a dolphin is from the layers on its teeth.

Fact Number 10
Dolphins can move each eye independently. They can move each eye up, down, forward, and backward, giving them nearly 360 degrees of vision.

Fact Number 11
Unlike a fish, which moves its tail from side to side, a dolphin swims by moving its tale made up of flukes up and down. A dolphin carries more oxygen in its blood than a fish and can swim longer; hence, dolphins are better adapted to the sea than are any fish.

Fact Number 12
Dolphin teeth are used for grasping, not chewing. They have no jaw muscles for chewing.

Fact Number 13
While most wild animals avoid contact with humans, wild dolphins are known to play and associate with humans, especially children.

Fact Number 14
Dolphins can kill sharks with their noses. They may even circle around a shark to coordinate an attack.

Fact Number 15
Dolphins have been known to work with both whales and humans to hunt for food.

Fact Number 16
Dolphins can swim up to 48.3 km per hour.

Fact Number 17
Dolphins have names for each other and call out to each other specifically.

Fact Number 18
Dolphins cannot swim backward, which makes it difficult for them to escape fishing nets. If they can’t get to the surface, they can drown in a matter of minutes.

Fact Number 19
Some scientists think that dolphins can also use their high-pitched sounds to stun or paralyze fish while hunting.

Fact Number 20
Dolphins do not breathe automatically as humans do and will die if given a general anesthetic. They must sleep at the surface of the water with their blowholes exposed.

Fact Number 21
Dolphins typically do not live alone, but rather in schools or pods. They have a complex social structure and seem to have a wide range of emotions, including humor. Large pods can have 1,000 members or more.

Fact Number 22
A dolphin spends most of its life holding its breath.

Fact Number 23
A dolphin can make about 700 clicking sounds per second. The clicks come from deep inside the dolphin’s head, underneath the blowhole. Scientists call this area the “monkey lips.”

Fact Number 24
Blocking off a dolphin’s ears with suction cups hardly affects its hearing, yet if its lower jaw is covered with a rubber jacket, a dolphin will have trouble hearing. This has led scientists to believe sound may be carried from the water to its inner ear through the lower jawbone or even its entire body.

Fact Number 25
A baby dolphin is born tail-first to prevent drowning. After the mother breaks the umbilical cord by swiftly swimming away, she must immediately return to her baby and take it to the surface to breathe.

Fact Number 26
Dolphins can recognize themselves in the mirror, and they love to admire themselves.