Born in the Wild: Dolphin Trivia Quiz

Answer: calf

Baby dolphins are called calves.

An ephyna is a baby jellyfish, a cria is a baby alpaca and a kit is the name given to a baby ferret.

Answer: shallow water

When the time comes to give birth, female dolphins will move into shallow water. They are usually accompanied by other females who offer comfort, protect the mother from predators and help the newborn calf reach the surface to breathe.

Answer: they would drown if born head-first

Since dolphins are air-breathers, in the time it takes to be born, the calf would drown if it came out head-first.

Answer: they die

I once saw this on television. A sperm sample was taken from a captive-bred Bottlenose dolphin. When drops of seawater were added to the sample, it only took a few seconds for all the sperm to die.

Answer: True

Dolphins occasionally display sexual behaviour for reasons other than reproduction, such as communication and strengthening social bonds within a group.

Answer: 9 and 14

For females, it's between the ages of five and thirteen.

The wide range in sexual maturity is due to geographical location and whether the dolphin is male or female.

Answer: eleven months

Female short-beaked common dolphins reach sexual maturity around the age of twelve years. At birth, a calf measures roughly one metre long and weighs ten kilograms.

Gestation periods vary between the different species. For example, Hector's dolphin, one of the smallest species, has a gestation period of around ten months, whereas the largest known species, the Orca (Killer whale), has a gestation period of eighteen months.

Answer: False

There's a reason why dolphins don't have lips. Unlike most mammals, dolphin calves do everything underwater, including suckling milk from their mothers. If a dolphin calf had lips, it would drown while trying to feed. Instead, a female dolphin's mammary glands have a special muscle. When this muscle contracts, it squirts milk out to feed the calf.

Answer: True

Females will only mate with the strongest and most dominant males so, during the breeding season, males compete for the right to mate. These competitions include fighting with other males or herding a particular female, to prevent access by other males. In fact, male bottlenose dolphins have been observed following females for weeks, waiting for a chance to mate.

Answer: Yes

It's rare but, yes, it's possible not only for bottlenose dolphins, but also other dolphin species to give birth to twins and even triplets. Usually, though, only one calf is born.