Dolphin Portal

Dolphins have various ways of defending themselves:

 

Strength in numbers - Dolphins swim atleast in pairs or in pods - which are family like groups of up to 12 dolphins which coordinate their actions when hunting or defending themselves against attackers.

Not only does living together help them fight predators- but they also help each other if injured.

 

Intelligence - Dolphins are among the most intelligent creatures - and can often anticipate threats and outsmart and out maneuvre their predators or attackers in ways that the predator or attacker cannot even comprehend.

 

Speed and strength - Dolphins are powerful swimmers and can swim fast enough to leap out of water really high- even when they are very large - and when attacking by hitting with their snouts they  can easily maim and kill much larger predators including great white sharks.

 

Sharp Teeth - Dolphins have been known to bite and kill otters, porpoises and other creatures - for play  or for food (though they do this very rarely) - and they can injure or maim most marine creatures if they  bite.

Through a superior understanding of their environment - this stems from their intelligence - but Dolphins can often adapt to and understand their environment in ways that many other marine creatures dont- and they can use this as a way to defend themselves by evading predators or attackers.

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When it's time to rest, a dolphin will shut down only one hemisphere of its brain, and close the opposite eye (the left eye will be closed when the right half of the brain sleeps, and vice versa). During this time, the other half of the brain monitors what's going in the environment and controls breathing functions.

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Sometimes, dolphins will hang motionless at the surface of the water during sleep, while other times, they may swim slowly. Scientists have also documented captive dolphins sleeping at the bottom of pools. (They periodically surface for air.)

Within a 24-hour period, each half of the brain gets about 4 hours of slow-wave sleep, according to a 2008 article in the journal Neuroscience Biobehavioral Reviews, which also notes there's scant evidence among dolphins for rapid-eye-movement, or REM, sleep (the stage in which dreams typically occur in humans).

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There are three main reasons why dolphins may have evolved this sleeping style, the review noted. First, dolphins would likely drown if they didn't keep half of their brain active, because their breathing is always consciously controlled.

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Second, unihemispheric slow-wave sleep allows the animals to look out for danger while they rest.

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Third, this type of sleep allows the dolphin to keep up certain physiological processes, such as muscle movement, that helps the warm-blooded mammal maintain the body heat it needs to survive in the frigid ocean.