Some people believe that dolphins are superior in mind to humans, their brains are tremendously developed. They can communicate with each other from afar using ultrasonic waves. Gray dolphin is a mammal of the order of cetaceans.
How to recognize a gray dolphin?
This differs tremendously from other species of dolphins . The gray dolphin does not have a so-called beak, its physique is powerful and massive, the body narrows to the tail, and the tail itself is narrow. A powerful forehead is steeply raised from the tip of the upper part of the snout, the head is rounded, neat. The cut of the mouth does not pass all over the face. A small concave groove located on the head differs from all other brothers in a gray dolphin. A description of its color cannot be given unambiguously, since body color varies greatly with age. The back of the dolphin is gray or dark gray, the abdomen is light, with age the white spots on the body become larger. It is as if turning gray, turning white. The entire surface of the body is covered with scars from wounds inflicted by mollusks or relatives. When communicating with each other, these dolphins are often aggressive and bite.
The weight of an adult can reach five hundred kilograms. The body size from the tip of the tail to the beginning of the muzzle is from three to four meters. Gray dolphins are the fifth largest in size in their family. They have up to seven teeth, all located on the lower jaw, the upper gum is smooth. Dolphin teeth protrude forward from the gums by half a centimeter. Due to the upper fin, the gray dolphin can be mistaken for an killer whale until it appears out of the water.
What do dolphins eat?
This mammal prefers to eat at night, but not because time is not enough during the day, but because their favorite delicacy - squid - only in the dark approaches the surface of the water. Everything that dolphins feed on is found in the water - these are mollusks, crustaceans and a variety of small fish. Eating these creatures, the described animals significantly affect their distribution and quantity.
Spread
Gray dolphins are distributed around the world in free waters and along coasts. Not found only on the west coast of Africa, in some waters of South America. In Russian waters, a gray dolphin is a rare phenomenon, mainly it can be found closer to the Kuril Islands. Their exact number is unknown, the approximate number of individuals in total is more than four hundred thousand.
Breeding and raising cubs
Dolphins live up to thirty-five years. The age at which females mature to procreate is 8-10 years. Males are not limited to years, their maturity determines the size of the body - from two and a half meters. Hatched gray dolphins of cubs from a year from fourteen months. Babies weigh about twenty kilograms at birth and can swim on their own. Mother feeds her children with breast milk until they reach one and a half year old age. In the east of the Pacific Ocean, dolphin fertility peaks in winter, and in the east in summer and early autumn. Dolphins are social creatures, they are very sociable, live in groups and take care of the cubs with the whole flock. If the baby is in trouble, no matter whose, you need to protect. Everything is like people have.
On the brink of extinction
In Russian waters, a gray dolphin is very rare. The Red Book of the USSR mentioned this species on its pages, it was protected. At the moment, the IUCN-96 Red List includes a gray dolphin, and the Russian Red Book also. These individuals are protected by the state; a large fine is provided for their capture. A gray dolphin is of no value to humans: it is inedible, the skin is not suitable for sewing. What could threaten this animal?
The first is the depletion of fish stocks in dolphin habitats. Fishermen, like dolphins, know when and where to fish. In Japan and Sri Lanka, dolphin meat is eaten, so up to two thousand individuals are eaten in these places a year. Anthropogenic sounds passing through the oceans are fatal to deep-sea inhabitants, including dolphins. These noises, which are captured by sensitive animals, cause decompression sickness. The disease is fatal for all dolphins. An increase in sea level and an increase in water temperature can also cause the extinction of many species, including the gray dolphin. With climate change, they will have to migrate, which will affect the conditions and habitats, food and, accordingly, the number of survivors.
A person does not take the most plausible part in the life of dolphins, throwing industrial waste and ordinary garbage into the sea. Japanese scientists discovered dead individuals, at the opening of which it turned out that their stomachs were filled with plastic bags, tin cans from different drinks. This garbage did not digest and did not come out naturally, which caused death. Chemicals discharged into the oceans kill annually dolphins in the sea as much as they do not eat in Sri Lanka even in 5 years. In the Red Book, a gray dolphin is listed in the column of protected animals, has the status of "vulnerable".