Dolphins have learned how to use shells to hunt fish now. Photos: Marine Mammal Science
Dolphins, as you know, are very intelligent. They routinely surprise us with new things, and one of the most surprising is something called “shelling.” And recently, the first-ever footage of dolphins trying out their new tactic was recorded near Great Sandy Marine Park in Queensland, Australia.
Dolphins have many hunting techniques, but shelling might be the most remarkable. First, the dolphin finds a shell, after which they somehow chase a fish into said shell, where it is trapped. The dolphin then brings the shell with the fish inside to the surface, flings it around a few times, then eats the trapped fish.
Strangely, this behavior has already been seen on the other side of Australia in a place called Shark Bay. Since Australia is massive, that led researchers to believe that shelling is likely a learned behavior that dolphins are teaching each other.
“We were on a research boat off Hervey Bay when we spotted a dolphin raising something large out of the water. I started screaming because I know what shelling looks like,” Dr Alexis Levengood, the lead author in a study about shelling, said in a statement. “We were able to record footage and take photographs of dolphins shelling in the Great Sandy Marine Park, which is the first published record of it on the east coast of Australia.”
While it is indeed possible that both dolphin populations learned how to use shells to hunt fish independently from one another, it’s more likely that the dolphins are teaching it to other dolphins. In one instance that could prove that, a team saw a young dolphin watching its mother shelling.
“We saw the mother surface with a shell, the fish inside escaped, and the dolphin dropped the shell to chase the fish. Then, minutes afterwards, the dolphin calf picked up the shell and held it the same way as its mother,” explained Dr Levengood. “Our footage provides the first potential evidence of maternal social transmission – a process by which offspring learn behaviour by observing the actions of its mother. It challenges the belief that dolphins learn this tool use from their peers. These findings highlight how smart, clever, and innovative dolphins are.”
