Page 60 - World of Animals - Issue #31

Conserving dolphins

Flipper’s family

These diverse marine mammals range from the
tiny Maui’s dolphin to the mighty orca
It’s easy to picture a dolphin in our minds. dolphins swim upside down to spot predators dolphins in the estuaries of America have also
Smooth grey skin, a long snout and a happy swimming above them. Every species has learned this trick and force themselves up

smile. The species you’re thinking of is the evolved unique anatomy and behaviours that riverbanks after driving fish towards the mud.
bottlenose, made famous by the television equip them with the tools they need to survive. They’ve even figured out that the gritty silt can

show Flipper and found in aquariums across Having blossomed from paddling carnivores wear down their teeth, so the dolphins always
the planet. These instantly recognisable animals into a diverse group of skilled ocean predators, land on the same side of their bodies to keep at
represent only one of over 40 dolphin species, these toothed whales have truly earned their least half of their teeth safe from erosion.
many of which face severe threats. Whether place on Earth. This kind of behaviour is seen in small
they inhabit deep oceans, river estuaries No species tells this story better than populations of animals, and is passed down
or shallow seas, each species has its own the largest dolphin – the orca. Despite also through generations and even shared between
challenges, but many of their lives are seriously being called the killer whale, this animal is in friends. It isn’t evolved behaviour, it’s learned
impacted by human activity. the dolphin family and sits at the very top and remembered just like early humans
Each species has evolved to fill a specific of the oceanic food chain. These animals developing methods for hunting and creating

niche, like the striped dolphin that scours the have developed group hunting techniques fire. These are animals that are smart enough

surface of open ocean for fish. The Ganges river to rival any land animal, and even join the to make traditions, and should be protected by
dolphin has adapted to live in murky water by terrestrial hunters to catch sea lions on land by humans from the man-made dangers that the
completely losing its sight, and Commerson’s purposefully beaching themselves. Bottlenose oceans now hold.
Long-beaked common dolphins
can reach speeds of 40km/h
(25mph) on the hunt for prey

“Dolphins have blossomed from
paddling carnivores into a diverse

group of skilled ocean predators”

Irawaddy dolphin Vaquita Ganges river dolphin Hector’s dolphin Baiji

Found only in Southeast Technically a porpoise, Living in only 20 per cent These dolphins live off the Though classified as
Asia, there are less than the vaquita is the most of their former range, only coasts of New Zealand and Critically Endangered, the
90 of these dolphins left. threatened toothed whale 1,000 of these blind dolphins have suffered a decline of freshwater baiji is considered
They are often entangled on Earth. It lives only in the remain. Drought has caused 74 per cent over just three to be ‘functionally extinct’.

in fishing nets by accident. northernmost tip of the the demand for water to generations. The main cause This means there are too

There is now a ban on Gulf of California and will go increase and they have been of this is bycatch in fisheries, few to sustain a healthy
trading to prevent them extinct by 2018 if it continues stranded in irrigation canals. mostly stationary gill nets population. They have
being sold to aquariums to get stuck in illegal nets set The rivers they inhabit are that trap the air-breathing mainly disappeared due to

and put on display. for totoaba fish. also affected by pollution. dolphins under the water. bycatch and boat traffic.
60

058-062_Conserving_the_dolphin_WOA31.indd 60 02/03/2016 16:00