Dolphins

Dolphins are marine mammals and are closely related to porpoises and whales. They can be found world-wide, but usually live in shallow waters near the continental shelf. They vary in size and weight, ranging from 1.2 - 9.5 m in size and 40kg-10tonnes in weight. They are carnivorous mammals, mostely feeding on fish and squid. A dolphin is considered to be one of the most intelligent animals and are very friendly in nature, which makes them very popular to humans.

It is believed that dolphins evolved about 10 million years ago during the miocene. The Delphinidae is the largest in the Cetacea. The word 'dolphin' comes from the ancient greek, meaning 'with a womb', so it can be interpreted as meaning 'a fish with a womb'.
Dolphins often leap above the water and sometimes perform acrobatic tricks. Scientists are unsure of this particular behaviour. Dolphins are also very playful creatures and can often be seen playing with seaweed or playfighting with other dolphins. They also like playing in the waves, riding along in the waves. They even 'surf' coastal sweels and and bow waves of boats. Dolphins are also willing to approach humans and even playfully interact with them in the water. Because dolphins and so playful and inteeigent, humans often employ them for many things, including shows. Dolphins can be trained to perform shows for human entertainment.
But dolphins also have threats to them. Things like polluted waters, with pesticides and heavy metals, threaten thir survival. Sometimes, dolphins are killed or injured by boats in the open water. Some fishing methods, like the use of drift or gill nets, also result in large numbers of deaths for them. Some parts of the world, like Japan and the Faroe Islands, consider dolphins as a food, so they hunt them with harpoons or drive hunts.
The year 2007 has been declared as (International) Year of the Dolphin by the United Nations and the United Nations Environment Programme .
I think dolphins are neat animals and when I was at Marine Land I loved seeing them perform. I thoguht it was amazing the kinds of tricks they can do.

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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin