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More About Dolphins ...
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Dolphins are certain aquatic mammals related to whales and porpoises.
The word is used in a few different ways. It can mean:
any member of the family Delphinidae (oceanic dolphins),
any member of the families Delphinidae and Platanistoidae (oceanic and river dolphins),
any member of the suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales; these include the above families and some others),
laypeople often use the term synonymously with Bottlenose Dolphin, the most common and familiar species of dolphin.
In this encyclopedia, definition two is used.
Porpoises (suborder Odontoceti, family Phocoenidae) are thus not dolphins in our sense. Killer Whales and some related species belong to the Delphinidae family and therefore qualify as dolphins, even though they are called whales in common language.
There are almost 40 species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from 1.2 metres and 40 kg (Heaviside's Dolphin), up to 7 metres and 4.5 tonnes (the Killer Whale). Most species weigh between about 50 and about 200 kg. They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and all are carnivores, mostly taking fish and squid.
The family Delphinidae is the largest in the Cetacea, and relatively recent: dolphins evolved about 10 million years ago, during the Miocene.
Dolphins are widely believed to be amongst the most intelligent of all animals, although the difficulties and expense of doing experimental work with a large marine animal, with a very different sensory apparatus from our own, mean that many of the tests required to confirm this belief have not yet been done, or have been carried out with inadequate sample sizes and methodology. See the Dolphin intelligence article for more details.
Dolphins often leap above the water surface, sometimes performing acrobatic figures (e.g. the spinner dolphin). This and other behaviour is interpreted as playing. They are capable of diving up to 260 m deep and 15 min long, but rarely stay underwater longer than few minutes.
Frequently dolphins will accompany boats, riding the bow waves. They are also famous for their willingness to occasionally approach humans and interact with them in the water. In return, in some cultures like in Ancient Greece they were treated with welcome; a ship spotting dolphins riding in their wake was considered a good omen for a smooth voyage.
Dolphins are social animals, living in so called schools of up to a dozen animals. In places with high abundance of food, schools can join temporarily forming aggregations of over 1000 dolphins. The individuals communicate using a variety of klicks, whistles and other vocalizations. They also use ultrasonic sounds for echolocation.
Membership in schools is not rigid, interchange is common. However, the animals can establish strong bonds between each other. This leads to them staying with injured or ill fellows for support.
Dolphins are predators, chasing their prey at high speed. The dentition is adapted to the animals they hunt: Species with long beaks and many teeth forage on fish, whereas short beaks and lesser tooth count are linked to catching squid. Some dolphins may take crustaceans. Usually, the prey is swallowed as a whole. The bigger species are capable of eating marine mammals, especially the orca, which kills even large whales.
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Taxonmony
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Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Family: Delphinidae
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Source: Wikipedia Read more about Dolphins
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STOCK FOOTAGE DIRECTORY
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Dolphin
Cinenet
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Dolphin
Free Stock Footage
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Atlantic White-Sided Dolphin
In The Wild Productions
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Bottlenose dolphin
Ocean Stock Footage
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Spinner dolphin
Ocean Stock Footage
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Dolphin
Wrightwood Laboratories
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Bottlenose Dolphin
DavidIreland.com
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Dolphin
Footage World
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Dolphin
GotFootage.com
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Dolphin
Footage Bank
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White-sided dolphin
Howard Hall Productions
White-sided dolphins Visit Site
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Bottlenose dolphin
Howard Hall Productions
Bottlenose dolphins Visit Site
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Bottlenose dolphin
Howard Hall Productions
Bottlenose dolphins feeding on fish Visit Site
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Common dolphin
Howard Hall Productions
Common dolphins Visit Site
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Dolphin
Global Cuts
Do you know any dolphins personally? If you've ever gone diving at Dolphin Reef, you'll answer ""yes."" Here, on the northern shores of the Red Sea, on the Sinai border between Israel and Egypt, you can get ""up close and personal"" with bottlenose dolphins in their natural environment. They've grown comfortable around humans over the years, thanks to curiosity, play, and spontaneous interaction. And as a result, we were able to capture this fantastic, intimate footage.
The footage on Dolphin Reef is shot with a Hi-8 camcorder and is supplied in flattened QuickTime format. It is shot and captured in PAL format dimensions, 720 x 576 pixels, at a frame rate of 25 fps. Visit Site
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Bottle-nose Dolphin
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Located on Grassy Key in the heart of the Florida Keys, Dolphin Research Center is a not-for-profit education and research facility, and home to a big family of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Meet Pandora, Josephine, Cindy and Sandy as they do their daily exercises. This collection brings you high jumps, rolls, flips, tailwalking and lots of other dolphin skills and shenanigans.
The footage on Dolphin Research Center is shot with a DV camcorder and is supplied in flattened QuickTime format. Time lengths range from 3 seconds up to 8 seconds and 4.3 MB to 48.8 MB file size. It is shot and captured in DV-PAL format dimensions, 720 x 576 pixels, at a frame rate of 25 fps Visit Site
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Common Dolphin
Global Cuts
Add a big wallop of joy, happiness and harmony to your next project. These Common Dolphins are clearly having the time of their lives, enthusiastically swimming and surfing in the Red Sea. We found this pod while we were chasing the waves in our safari boat, outside Port Safaga in Egypt. And we thoughtfully brought them to you.
The footage on Surfing Dolphins is shot with a 3CCD camcorder and is supplied in flattened QuickTime format. It is shot and captured in DV-PAL format dimensions, 720 x 576 pixels, at a frame rate of 25 fps. Visit Site
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Common Dolphin
Global Cuts
'Not Your Typical Liveaboard'. That's how Nekton Cruises descibes there dive trips. And we have to agree. Using the super stable SWATH design the vessels are not a typical looking boat, it's designed for the comfortable SCUBA adventure that satisfies even the most demanding imaginations. This time we ended up outside Bahamas, but we where not alone. As we get in the water we immideatly encounters with dolphins.
Take a deep breath and enjoy this dolphin footage, watch them swim with a casual grace unmatched by any other creature in the sea.
The Dolphins Of Bahamas footage is shot with a 3CCD DVCAM camcorder and is supplied in flattened QuickTime format. It is shot and captured in DV-NTSC format dimensions, 720 x 486 pixels, at a frame rate of 30 fps. Visit Site
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Dolphin
Global Cuts
The footage on Meet The Dolphins is shot with a Panasonic NV-DX100 camcorder in a Gates Underwater Housing. It is supplied in flattened QuickTime format. It is shot and captured in PAL format dimensions, 720 x 576 pixels, at a frame rate of 25 fps. Visit Site
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