Dolphins are the most commonly seen cetaceans. They have beaklike snouts and slender, streamlined bodies with triangular fins and notched tails. The bottlenose dolphin is the most widely recognized as TV's famous Flipper. It is small (10 ft., 440 lbs.) and wears a permanent "smile".
The rough-toothed dolphin is 8 to 9 feet long and weighs about 300 pounds. It is dark gray with a pinkish hue on the white underside. The long, slender white-tipped beak with white sides blends into a sloping forehead that gives the animal a sharp, conical, streamlined front end as it moves through warm ocean waters. These dolphins are a favorite species for trainers because they love puzzles, have long attention spans , and can do complex, prolonged tasks.
Dolphins can learn a great variety of tricks, in part, because they love to play, learn, and be in the company of humans. They will catch, toss and catch a Frisbee, toss rings, shoot baskets by leaping from the water to dunk a shot, and even carry people on their backs.
In the wild, several swimmers claim they were saved by dolphins. Caught in a rip current and struggling for shore, one man went under only to be lifted back to the surface and pushed to shore by a dolphin.
