Dolphins: Smart and Friendly

This is the second magazine article I want to share with you from Let Creation Speak, and this one is called "Dolphins: Smart and Friendly." I love dolphins, so I thought I would share some facts about them through this article. Enjoy!

 

     The sign says "How to Meet the Dolphins. First, don't touch their blowholes. Also, don't put your hand on their heads. Pet them on their sides. Most importantly, if a dolphin offers you a fish, take it. It's a gift of friendship." This sign is posted on a beach called Monkey Mia in Australia. Every day
people wade in knee-deep water looking for wild but gentle dolphins. It's exciting to experience one of our Creator's most friendly creatures.
     Dolphins are small-toothed whales with long snouts. These saltwater swimmers travel in pods of two to 1,000 and can be found in every ocean except the polar seas, where it is too cold. A thick layer of skin covering a fat layer of blubber protects each of these warm-blooded mammals. They have lungs instead of gills.
     Another special way God created dolphins is by giving them a blowhole. It's like a nose. Through the blowhole, a dolphin can take in enough air to stay under water eight to ten minutes. The blowhole is also like a voice box. Muscles control the air going in and out of the blowhole. These muscles change in size and shape to make different whistling sounds. Each dolphin has its own unique whistle so other pod members recognize it.
     God created dolphins with special skills. Have you ever heard of echolocation? Bats and dolphins use it to find food in hard-to-see places. Just behind the snout of a dolphin is a round forehead. Inside is a melon. (Not the kind you eat.) This melon makes and sends high-pitched clicking sounds that bounce off objects. The bouncing sound echoes back to the dolphin's lower jaw. Then a signal is sent to its brain. This signal gives the brain a picture of how big the object is, what it is made of, how fast it is moving, and which direction it is going. Only our awesome God could create something as spectacular as echolocation.
     Dolphins are good hunters and feast on fish and squid. They catch their dinner with sharp, pointed teeth then swallow it whole. On the west coast of Africa, bottlenose dolphins help fishermen herd fish into shallow water. The fishermen let the dolphins eat first, then they catch what is left. A baby dolphin, called a calf, is born tail first after about a year of growing inside its mother. It's born about the size you were when you were three years old. The mother or another female quickly guides the calf up to the surface for its first breath of air. The hungry calf nurses every 20 minutes. The calf is born with 88 to 100 teeth. It has a gap in the front of its mouth so it can nurse without biting its mother.
     Our awesome Creator placed dolphins in the seas on the fifth day of creation.

 (Genesis 1:21a) "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind"

(Genesis 1:22a) "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas,"

So, there it is! All the facts about dolphins show how great God is, with his creativity in making each animal unique. My family and I had a chance to go to South Padre Island a couple years ago, and while we were on a boat ride, we noticed some dolphins. They were racing the boat beside us, jumping in front of the boat. Here is a picture of a dolphin by itself when we stopped moving quite so fast.

On a trip to South Padre Island we saw some dolphins during a boat ride.

I hope you liked this second magazine article on God's creation. If you have ever seen a dolphin, or maybe even pet one, tell me about it on Facebook or in the comment section below. Check back again on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. for another post like this one.