Certain bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Western Australia have picked up an unusual trick, a new study reports: When they head off to forage for a meal, they first grab sponges and hold them in their beaks as they dive down to the seafloor.
These dolphins dive to the bottom of deep channels and poke their sponge-covered beaks into the sandy ocean floor to flush out small fish that dwell there.... Foragers then drop their sponges, gobble up available fish and retrieve the implements for another sweep [Science News].
This complicated procedure is the first confirmed example of tool use by dolphins, researchers say. Scientists had previously observed some dolphins in Australia's Shark Bay carrying around sponges, but the purpose was unclear. The new study documents this unusual behavior, which only a subset of a larger dolphin population engages in, and also probes the remaining mysteries. Researchers still aren't ...
