Dolphins by Hilary

I volunteer at the Dolphin Research Center in Florida. I feed the dolphins, lead tours and even take out the trash! But I also get to spend time with the dolphins and I noticed some dolphins hang out in pairs. That got me thinking: How much time do dolphins spend in pairs?

What did we do?
First I did some research. I found out when male dolphins stick together it's called pair bonding. To find out how much time they spend together, I observed them for a week. Each day I watched the dolphins for 10 minutes and timed how long they swam together.

What did we find out?
I kept my data in charts and made a graph. But I realized my results only showed a snapshot of dolphin behavior. To get the big picture, I decided to conduct my test for longer than a week. In the meantime, I headed to the dolphin tank to swim with my marine mammal friends.

What can you do?

• What animals are you interested in observing? Try setting up your own investigation. Do some animal research, then head to the zoo and check out the chimpanzees or maybe the snakes. What do you notice? Write it down!
   
  
• Are there any animals in your backyard you could study? Maybe you want to know how much food squirrels store for the winter. Set up an investigation and send us the results.
   
  
• Use this dolphins investigation as a science fair project idea for your elementary or middle school science fair! Then tell us about it!
   
  

	SciLinks More on Animal Behavior Go to the DFTV Boards, and tell us about your science investigation.