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toc //__Dolphins__// = =

= = = = =Introduction =

Many people like dolphins because they are cute and intelligent. But they also have cool facts about them. Instead of talking like human, they mostly use an odd sound like squeals and whistles to communicate. As well they use their body to express certain messages, such as jumping out of the water or whacking its tail on the surface of the water. They are also very helpful for human, especially divers. They rescue injured divers by helping them rise to the top of the water to save their lives.

=What do they look like? =

Bottlenose dolphins are small whale which has stubby beaks, ** [|blowhole] **, and their **[|elongated]** upper and lower jaws form what is called **[|melon]**which gives the name, bottlenose dolphin. They are mostly gray at the top and almost all white at the underside. Generally they are eight to nine feet long and weigh 400-500 pounds.



=What do they eat? =

Bottlenose dolphins feed on a big variety of small fish, crabs, squids, shrimps, small rays, sharks, and other such small animals. They feed alone, but they usually work together in a group to catch their prey. For example, they chase the fishes on to the mud or whack the fishes with their long tails. And they also can hear the fishes swimming nearby them, and knows exactly where they are even in the dark!



=Where do they live? =

The bottlenose dolphin likes warm, tropical, and shallow inshore waters. So they are usually seen in harbors, bays, **[|estuaries]**, lagoons, and sometimes in large rivers. To be more accurate, they are found in the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean.They don’t migrate often, but they may follow  moving fishes, or shrimps to eat them.



=Conclusion =

Even though bottlenose dolphins are one of the well known dolphins, some of them are in a shocking situation. They are still plenty of them, but they are nearly lessening in some different areas because many other countries still hunt dolphins for food and for medicines made from their  oil. Also they are dying very easily from pollutions, habitat **[|alterations]**, boat **[|collisions]**, swimming with wild animals, and human disturbance (such as boating). So in United States, Bottlenose dolphins are protected by the Marine Mammal Act which says that you can’t kill, feed, or bother any marine mammal (seals, whales, otters, etc.) without an important reason.

media type="youtube" key="TMCf7SNUb-Q" height="387" width="584" =Websites =

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