Dolphins are  mammal of the order of Cetacean. There are almost 40 species, ranging in size from 1.2 meters to 9.5 meters and 40 kilos and 6 tons (Orcas). They are predators

The name dolphin perhaps come from the Greek Delphis, whe means or “uterus” since the dolphins give birth to their babies, or in an other translation of Delphis it can mean “spirit of the sea”!….for me both can match with my idea of Dolphins!

In Greek mythology, the dolphin is an animal beloved by Apollo. Friend of man, kind with children, liking music, sailors’s comrade that announce calm waters and safe routes, he is a help for fishermen. His capture was a sacrilege.

The dolphin sleeps with half a brain at a time: while one half rests, the other remains vigilant.

The dolphins are the only ones, among the non-human mammals, that can be attributed a proper name. In social group, the members recognize themselves by their “speech”: every individual corresponds a special vocalization, a sound that in their very intelligent mind is a real name.

The dolphin is the only animal, besides humans, to have in the midbrain the “black substance”, which indicates a high intellectual development. If captured he feels anxiety. For an affective pain, as in the case of a mother separated from her baby, she can suicide, voluntarily stopping to breathe.

After mating, the female dolphin makes prenatal gymnastics. Gestation lasts one year.

Dolphins can realize that they do not know something. In one experiment, some students were rewarding the animals only if they answered correctly but they were allowed not to complete the test to think it over. The “do not know” option was often chosen by a dolphin. For the searchers, their behavior in face of doubts is similar to what humans feel in similar situations.

To reduce friction with the water, the skin of the dolphin is renewed every two hours.

The dolphin emits with the head some high-frequency sounds (called click) that spread in the water and then come back in the form of echo. Like that they are able to navigate and locate objects and bodies in the water (so they can, for example, find a coin up to 80 meters and a shoal of small fishes to more than 100 meters).

The dolphins are the only animals with the elephants and men who can recognize their own image in the mirror.

Before eating a squid, dolphins dragged it on the clean sand (so to pop off the bone), and hit it repeatedly (to squeeze out all of the ink).

In nature a dolphin lives 45 years. Half of those in captivity “playing” in some performance shows die within two years, those who resist may not exceed five.