| Term Paper Title | Bottle-nose Dolphins |
| # of Words | 505 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) | 2.02 |
Bottle-nose Dolphins
When bottlenose dolphins give birth, others surround it for protection. It’s
very dangerous to give birth in the ocean, especially for dolphins. Sharks are drawn
to the blood, and there’s nothing they like more than a nice baby dolphin. It must
be hard for the shark though. With the group of dolphins surrounding the mother,
he can’t get through to the baby. After the calf is born, the group of dolphins and
mother help it up to the surface to get it’s first breath of air. The calf and mother
are very close for about sixteen months. Mother dolphins can also give birth on
their own; they don’t need the help of the others.
Female bottle-nosed dolphins give birth every two to three years. They
become sexually mature around age five and 12, whereas for males it's between ten
and twelve. Gestation lasts a full year, and births occur from February to
May and September to November in Florida. In European waters, births take place
midsummer.
Bottlenose dolphins live up to about fifty years and can weigh up to 330-440
pounds. They can be as long as 13 feet! The bottlenose dolphins have a long beak
like nose, a falcate dorsal fin, and very sharp teeth. They have one blowhole at the
top of their head. They need to breath about once every two minutes, but can hold
their breath up to six minutes.
Dolphins use high-pitched whistles and “clicks” to generate sound waves.
The waves go through the water and bounce off of o...Read entire document
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