Dolphins are the kind of smart that’s a little unsettling for an animal. The more we observe their behavior, the freakier they become.
As researchers report in Marine Mammal Science, dolphins off Queensland, Australia, have been caught on camera using a rarely documented hunting technique called “shelling.” It’s a simple but effective strategy that lulls its prey, in this case a fish, into a false sense of security before it gets gobbled up.
A bottlenose dolphin will chase the fish into an empty sea snail shell. The fish, thinking it’s outsmarted the dolphin, will then experience the distinct sensation of sudden X pixie Haitian as the dolphin grabs the entire shell, carries it to the surface of the water, and then shakes it until the fish drops directly into its mouth. It’s the dolphin equivalent of turning over a bag of chips to pour the crumbs all over your face.
A Dolphin Was Filmed Shaking a Fish Out of a Shell Like a Snack Bag
The behavior was documented in Hervey Bay, where researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast were conducting routine surveys. Lead researcher Alexis Levengood immediately recognized what she was seeing and was reportedly so excited that she started screaming at the students on her boat.
Shelling had been previously documented, but only in Shark Bay, on the opposite side of Australia. The Queensland footage suggests that dolphins in different populations may have independently invented the same fishing technique. Alternatively, maybe they didn’t, and this is evidence that dolphins are passing on the tips and tricks they’ve learned, without having to deal with a rapid-fire TikTok video filled with “hacks” that take longer than just doing the thing.
The latter possibility makes sense, as the researchers filmed an adult female shelling while a calf watched. In a perfect example of cause and effect, of observation and imitation, the calf then picked up a shell and attempted the same trick. That doesn’t definitively prove the mom was teaching her kid a new hunting technique, but it could be the first evidence that dolphins may teach shelling to their offspring.
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