First, I am going to blog about dolphins. Dolphins are mammals which means they feed their babies with milk made by the mother. They also breathe air through a blowhole in the top of their head and they have to breathe every few minutes. Mammals also do not lay eggs, except for the platypus. Dolphins can be found in every ocean in the world and sometimes in rivers.Dolphins can vault out of water because of their tails.Some dolphins have been able to reach 55 miles per hour! Dolphins are very intelligent mammals. Their brain is about the same size as a humans and can be easily trained.Dolphins usually travel in a pod.The word pod means group.
Here is a picture of a dolphin brain compared to a humans
When people think about dolphins the bottle nose dolphin comes to mind.The bottle nose dolphin can grow up to 4 meters in length.The smallest dolphin is the Hector's dolphin which can grow up to 1 meter long.The largest whale is the Orca or killer whale which can grow up to 10 meters long.
When dolphins have to get some rest they do not completly go to sleep. Half of their brain goes to sleep while the other half wathches for predators.
Here is a picture of a bottle nose dolphin and a Killer whale.
Now on to whales. Whales are also mammals which means they breathe air, don't lay eggs and feed their babies milk which comes from the Mom. Whales are the largest mammals that exist at this moment.The blue whale is the largest whale in the world.When I think of a whale I think of a killer whale,beluga whale or a blue whale. The bad thing is that I am wrong. The killer whale is not a whale because it is a dolphin. Oh and the whale shark is only called a whale shark because of how big it is.It is really a shark because it does not breathe air.
Whales are put into two groups toothed and baleen.Toothed whales include the killer whale,dolphins and the sperm whale. They eat squids,fish and sometimes seals depending on how big they are.Baleen means that the animal is a filter feeder. Filter feeders usually have big mouths but eat small animals like krill or shrimp.Some of the whales in this group include blue whales and humpback whales. I know that sounds kind of weird since they have big mouths.
This is a picture of a whale shark.
Click HERE to go to the national geographics page on killer whales
Click HERE to go to the national geographics page on bottlenose dolphins
Click HERE to go to the Enchanted learning website on whales
Click HERE to learn more about dolphins
