Friday, January 29, 2010

Chinese White Dolphin

white dolphin


Hong Kong post collaborated with WWF organization  issued the stamp series of Chinese White Dolphin in 1999. The issued stamp in 4 denomination values with marked WWF logos. Another issue are maxi cards that depicted more detail of this species and local FDC.


image

The Chinese White Dolphin (Sousa chinensis chinensis), also called Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin, is a species of the Humpback dolphin and is one of eighty cetacean species.

The adult dolphin is usually white or grey in colour. They exhibit a pink-coloured skin. This colour of the skin is not a result of colour pigmentation, but is actually from blood vessels.








image


The adult's body length is about 200 - 350 centimetres and the infant's body length is about 1 metre. The average weight of an adult is around 150 to 230 kilograms.



image 

Chinese White Dolphins swim to the water surface to breathe every twenty to thirty seconds and after that, they will dive into deep water again.









image

A Chinese White Dolphin can live up to 40 years. The eldest dolphin lives in Hong Kong and is known to be about 33 years old.


image  


Male Chinese White Dolphins are mature at about 13 years of age. The females are ready for mating at an earlier age, about 10 years old. The males will call to the females in order to attract them for mating. They have a courtship that also involves swimming tougher and physical touching.






 
 
 
image

After a female conceives it takes about 11 months before her offspring is born. The females take very good care of their young. Generally a baby will stay with the mother until it is about three years of age. At that point it should have enough skills to live on its own and will go to join or create another pod.

 
 
image
 
Chinese White Dolphin can talk naturally to their friends. They can bend the upper part of their body forward, slap, do head bobbing, swim at a high speed and breach. As they grow up, they may develop a high level of movement such as somersaulting. Those that we can see in a dolphin show are advanced ones. They can do ball jumping, object  pushing and finding an object then bringing it back.









image

Chinese white dolphins dive to the water surface to breathe every twenty to thirty seconds and after that, they will dive into deep water again.They sometimes jump out of water,exposing their whole body. Besides jumping out of water, white dolphins also come up vertically out of the water, exposing the front half of their body. They have a pair of protruding eyes and they can see clearly in both air and water.










No comments:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...