Dolphin Facts & Trivia
Dolphin Facts
- Dolphins can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes.
- Dolphins consume a variety of prey including fish, squid and crustaceans.
- Dolphins use echolocation to navigate and find food.
- Not all dolphins live in sea water; river dolphins live in rivers.
- Dolphins are mammals and nurse their young with milk.
- Dolphins evolved from land animals; their land ancestor lived 50 million years ago and looked like a wolf.
- Dolphin mating season is peaked in spring and fall.
- Dolphin gestation is 9-17 months.
- There are 43 different species of dolphins.
- Dolphin life span is an average of 17 years, but have lived as long as 50 years.
- Dolphins are carnivores (meat eaters).
- Dolphins are carnivores (meat eaters).
- Dolphins live in schools or pods of up to 12 individuals.
- Dolphins use a blowhole on top of their heads to breathe.
- Some fishing methods, such as the use of nets, kill a large number of dolphins every year.
- The term dolphin means “womb” and is from the Greek word delphys.
- Dolphins are “re-entrants” who once lived on land.
- Some dolphins can understand up to 60 words.
- Dolphins do not have a sense of smell.
- The dolphin’s sonar is superior to any other animal.
- Dolphins will ram a shark in order to kill it.
- Humans are the most dangerous enemy of the dolphin.
- There were two dolphin TV shows, Flipper and Dolphin Cove.
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Class: Mammalia
- Order: Cetacean
- Family: Delphinidae
Dolphin Movies
- Big Miracle (2012)
- Dolphin Boy (2011)
- Dolphin Tale (2011)
- Beneath the Blue (2010)
- Dolphins (2000)
- To Swim with Dolphins (1996)
- The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
- Flipper (1963)
Dolphin songs
- Flipper TV Theme Song, with music by Henry Vars & lyrics by William D. Dunham
- The Promise (The Dolphin Song), by Olivia Newton John
Famous Dolphins
- Flipper, from the film “Flipper”
- Snowflake, from the film “Ace Ventura Pet Detective”
- T.D., the mascot of the football team the Miami Dolphins