In Shark Bay, off the Western coast of Australia, a unique population of bottlenose dolphins have a unusual trick up their flippers. Some of the females have learned to use sponges in their search for food, holding them on the ends of their snouts as they rummage through the ocean floor.
To Janet Mann at Georgetown University, the sponging dolphins provided an excellent opportunity to study how wild animals use tools. Sponging is a very special case of tool use - it is unique to Shark Bay's dolphins and even there, only about one in nine individuals do it. The vast majority of them are female. A genetic analysis revealed that the technique passes down almost exclusively from mother to daughter, and was invented relatively recently by a single female dolphin, playfully named "Sponging Eve".
Dolphins tend to sponge only in deep water, which is why little has been done ...
