Gray dolphin: features of the species

Some people believe that dolphins are superior in their intelligence, their brains are developed tremendously. Communicate with each other can from a distance with the help of ultrasonic waves. The gray dolphin is a mammalian animal of the whale order.

How to recognize the gray dolphin?

From other species of dolphins this differs tremendously. The gray dolphin does not have a so-called beak, its physique is powerful and massive, the body tapers to the tail, and the tail is narrow. The 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 over the entire muzzle. A small, concave groove located on the head, from all other brethren, is distinguished by a gray dolphin. The description of its color can not be given unambiguously, since the color of the body varies greatly with age. The back of the dolphin is gray or dark gray, the abdomen is light, with age of white spots on the body becomes larger. He seems to grow gray, covering himself with white. The whole 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 size of the body from the tip of the tail to the beginning of the muzzle is from three to four meters. Gray dolphins occupy the fifth position in size in their family. Their teeth are up to seven pairs, all located on the lower jaw, the upper gum is smooth. The teeth of the dolphin protrude forward from the gum for half a centimeter. Because of the upper fin gray, a dolphin can be mistaken for a killer whale until it emerges from the water.

What do dolphins eat?

This mammal prefers to eat at night, but not because the time is not enough in the daytime, but because their favorite delicacy is squid - only in the dark they approach the surface of the water. In the water, everything that dolphins eat is mollusks, crustaceans and various 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 the coasts. Not found only on the west coast of Africa, in some waters of South America. In the Russian waters, the gray dolphin is a rare phenomenon, mainly it can be found closer to the Kurile Islands. Their exact number is unknown, the approximate number of individuals in total is more than four hundred thousand.

Reproduction and rearing of cubs

Dolphins live up to thirty-five years. Age in which females mature for the continuation of the genus - 8-10 years. Males are not limited for years, their maturity determines the size of the body - from two and a half meters. Gray gray dolphins are born from a year from fourteen months. Baby at birth weigh about twenty kilograms, they know how to swim on their own. The mother feeds the children with breast milk until they reach the age of eighteen months. In the east of the Pacific Ocean, the peak of the birth of dolphins occurs in winter, and in the east - in summer and early autumn. Dolphins are social creatures, they are very sociable, live in groups and are cared for by the whole flock of babies. If the kid got into trouble, it does not matter whose - it is necessary to protect. Everything, as at people.

On the verge of extinction

In the Russian waters, a gray dolphin is very rare. The Red Data Book of the USSR mentioned this species on its pages, it was guarded. At the moment, the Red List of IUCN-96 has a gray dolphin, in the Red Book of Russia - too. These individuals are protected by the state, a large fine is provided for their catch. The gray dolphin has no value for man: it is inedible, the skin is not suitable for sewing. What can 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 a year in these places is eaten up to two thousand individuals. Anthropogenic sounds passing through the massifs of the oceans are fatal for deep-sea inhabitants, including dolphins. These noises, which are captured by sensitive animals, cause caisson disease. The disease is deadly for all dolphins. Increasing sea level and rising water temperatures can also cause extinction of many species, including the gray dolphin. With climatic changes, 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 waste products and ordinary garbage into the sea. Japanese scientists have found dead individuals, at the opening of which it turned out that their stomachs are filled with plastic bags, tin cans from under different drinks. This garbage was not digested and did not come out naturally, which caused death. Chemicals dumped in the World Ocean kill annually dolphins in the sea as much as in Sri Lanka they do not eat for 5 years. In the Red Data Book, the gray dolphin appears in the column of protected animals, has the status of "vulnerable".