2-minute read
While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery amongst humans, for dolphins, believed to be the second most intelligent creatures on Earth, copying the behavior of finned friends is very much a practical matter—it’s all about upgrading fish acquisition skills.
According to new research from scientists working with the Dolphin Innovation Project at Australia’s Shark Bay Marine Reserve, the clever cetaceans are making the most of their ability to absorb and apply knowledge by forming alliances outside of their families and learning specialized tool-using techniques to increase the day’s catch.
Like many young in the animal kingdom, bottlenose dolphin calves typically pick up foraging know-how from their mothers. However, the Shark Bay study revealed that the cognitively advanced animals recognize a good idea when they see one—even if it doesn’t come from mom. The dolphins are also motivated to learn tool-based foraging innovations from social interactions with non-parental adults. This marine life mentoring has resulted in the spread of an ingenious prey capture strategy known as shelling.
By observing and imitating others, a small group of dolphins in Shark Bay have learned how to trap prey in large gastropod shells, lift the shells above water, and shake them to dislodge and devour the fishy contents. This is how they do it.
Researchers believe the dolphins may have developed the trap and shake method of foraging to adapt to environmental change. For two years following a 2011 heatwave that caused a reduction in food supply impacting their reproduction and survival, the dolphins’ shelling behavior increased by 50%. By taking advantage of opportunities to interact and learn from other adults, the Shark Bay dolphins increased their resilience to life-threatening ecosystem stressors. Who’s a super-smart, social-networking aquatic mammal!
By the way, the Shark Bay Marine Reserve is located in Useless Loop. Is there a better town name? Well, there might be, but we haven’t come across it!
If you’d like to help ensure bottlenose dolphins can keep on being their big-brained, tool-using selves, you can contribute to the mission-critical conservation of marine habitats by participating in Plastic Free July, a global movement to give up the indestructible stuff and return our oceans to their prior state of pristine. Feeling motivated to reduce your use of plastic at home, school, and work? You can get all sorts of inspiring ideas about how to cut it out from the good people at the Plastic Free Foundation.
As a powerful visual reminder of how much plastic ends up in our oceans (8 million metric tons a year!), the talented artists at Oregon’s Washed Ashore Project have created a menagerie of 80 beautiful and thought-provoking wildlife sculptures constructed from debris collected from local beaches. If you’ve ever wondered what a shark, seal, or sea turtle built from bottles, buckets, and gumboots might look like, wonder no more. You can take a peek at Washed Ashore’s current art to save the sea exhibits here.
