A dolphin is a mammal that lives in water. Some people confuse dolphins with fish because they live in water and look like fish but in actuality, they are mammals and not fish. A dolphin usually grows up to a length of twenty-three feet. A baby dolphin is small and its size is between thirty-nine and fifty-three inches. Many people like to see baby dolphins because of their cuteness and friendly nature. A baby dolphin is called a “calf” as a singular baby dolphin. Multiple baby dolphins are called “calves”.
Surprising for you as it sounds like we are talking about a cow or a bull? Actually, the male dolphins are known as “bulls” and the female dolphins are known as “cows”. It must have made sense now. When there is a group of different dolphins together, the group of dolphins is called “pod”.
Interesting Facts About Calves or Baby Dolphins
Dolphins are animals that are very well known for their intelligence. Since we have mentioned that the baby dolphins are called “calves”. Let’s also highlight some of the interesting facts about baby dolphins also:
- Baby dolphins or calves are born with moustaches. When they grow up into larger dolphins, the moustache hair themselves starts shedding.
- All the dolphins (baby dolphins and parent dolphins) cannot breathe underwater and the reason behind this is that they lack gills, unlike the fish. They have to come out of the water every fifteen minutes to breathe. When they come out above the water surface they inhale the oxygen and preserve it in their lungs for the next fifteen minutes. They use it to preserve oxygen under the water after that.
- Since dolphins have to come out of the water surface to inhale, the baby dolphin must learn how to swim even during the beginning of their life on earth. Some researchers have concluded that dolphins learn to swim in their mother’s womb before their birth and when they are born they already know how to swim.
- Baby dolphins use their blowholes not only to swim but also to produce a variety of sounds like grunts, whistles, and squeaks and they use these sounds to communicate with each other.
- As the dolphins start growing older, they start shedding their outermost skin very often.
The Bottom Line
Baby dolphins are called “calves” and grown-up male and female dolphins are called “bulls” and “cows” respectively. Baby dolphins have some unique traits that are entirely different from those of their parents like they have moustaches but their parents do not have and they learn to swim before their birth, unlike other species of mammals.
