"I'm sure you'll recognise this smiley looking animal as a dolphin! But did you know that dolphins are mammals, just like you? This means that the females give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs like fish or birds do, and the young calves feed on milk made by their mother."

"Also, unlike most other animals that live in the sea, dolphins do not have gills, and therefore cannot breathe underwater. So they must come to the surface every few minutes to take in lungfuls of fresh air. If they didn't, they would drown."

"Scientists group dolphins with whales and porpoises into one group of mammals, which they call CETACEANS. This group is then split into two broad types: whales with teeth (toothed whales), which includes all dolphins and porpoises; and whales without teeth (baleen whales)."

"The dolphin family is the biggest group of cetaceans. In contains 32 different kinds of species including bottlenose dolphin, dusky dolphin, and common dolphin. Confusingly, some whales are actually dolphins too. The killer whale and pilot whale for instance, are in fact dolphins! This is because although they are whale sized, they are more closely related to dolphins."

"The main features of a dolphin are its 'beak' and the fin on its back – its dorsal fin – that tends to curve backwards. Dolphins also have one blowhole on the top of their head that they breathe in and out of. This is surrounded by strong muscles, which keep the hole tightly closed as it swims underwater."

"Dolphins have sharp, cone-shaped teeth, which are really useful for catching and eating their favourite foods – squid and fish. Dolphins also have large brains relative to the size of their bodies. The ratio of brain to body is about 1:100 for a bottlenose dolphin compared to 1:10,000 for a fin whale and 1: 40 for a human."

"Unfortunately there are very few of some dolphin species left. The main threat that dolphins face is becoming tangled in fishing nets. Although fishermen do not mean to catch dolphins, the enormous nets that they use to catch fish will sweep up anything in their path. When dolphins get caught, they cannot make it to the surface to breathe."

"WWF is working with fishermen around the world to help them reduce the number of dolphins, sharks and turtles that they accidentally catch in their fishing nets by investigating different types of nets and fishing equipment. WWF also works with governments to help them better manage how people use our seas and coasts."