Dolphin

Humpback dolphins are shy animals and so they are not often sighted near boats. They occur in tropical coastal waters, preferring areas less than 25 metres dee

Although Pink Dolphins are famous for its pink hue, they weren’t born this way. The dolphins are actually born grey and slowly turn pink as they age. Their final colour can be influenced by their behaviour, capillary placement, diet, and exposure to sunlight. The dolphins can be anywhere from mostly grey with some pink spots, to almost flamingo pink. And when the dolphins get excited, they can flush a brighter pink, similar to humans

The mammals are most regularly spotted in the north-facing bay between St John's and Lazarus islands.

Though they live in occasionally dark water and have sub-par eyesight, Pink dolphins still need to interact with other animals and their environment. Saltwater and freshwater dolphins both use sonars and clicks to communicate, but their environment makes them use this skill in different ways. In the shallow, vegetation-dense rivers, dolphins need to emit more clicks because foreign objects are closer than in the ocean. The pink river dolphins emit about 30 clicks per second in order to navigate the lush, loud environment of Singapore.

The prominent melon (forehead) of dolphins contains oily fat and is used for echolocation, helping to produce the whistles, clicks and pulses used to find food.

An adult Dolphin needs to find more than 12-15kg of a fish a day

Adults eat approximately 5% of their body weight per day. Bottlenose dolphins often cooperate when hunting and catching fish. In open waters, a dolphin pod sometimes encircles a large school of fish and herds them into a tight ball for easy feeding. Then the dolphins take turns charging through the school to feed. Occasionally dolphins will herd fish to shallow water where they are easy prey.

These cool creatures are awesome acrobats, too, and can be seen flipping (or “breaching“) out of the water. In fact, they can launch themselves up to five meters out of the water before crashing back down with a splash! There are different theories as to why they do this – it could be to get a better view of things in the distance, clean parasites off their bodies, communicate with other pods or just for good fun!

Bottlenose dolphins are super swimmers, gliding through the water using their curved dorsal fin on their back, a powerful tail and pointed flippers. They can reach speeds over 30km an hour and dive as deep as 250m below the surface!

Female bottlenose dolphins give birth to a calf every 3 to 6 years after a 12-month gestation period