A southern bottlenose dolphin uses a seashell to catch fish in Great Sandy Marine Park, Queensland, Australia./Courtesy of University of the Sunshine Coast

A camera captured dolphins using tools to catch fish. A mother and a young dolphin hunted the same way, suggesting the tool use is learned. It means survival skills are passed down through generations in dolphin society.

The University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) said on the 11th (local time) that "a research team led by Alexis Levengood of the School of Science and Engineering filmed dolphins using seashells to catch fish off the east coast of Queensland." The study was published in the international journal Marine Mammal Science.

◇Hunting with shells observed twice

From July to Oct. 2025, the research team twice observed an Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin engaging in behavior known as "shelling" in the Great Sandy Marine Park, a marine protected area in Hervey Bay in southeastern Queensland. The dolphin surfaced with a shell in its mouth, drained the water, and caught the fish inside. It is similar to a person using a dip net to catch fish.

Shelling has been observed in Shark Bay, Western Australia, since the mid-1990s. Michael Krützen of the University of Zurich in Switzerland first reported shelling by Shark Bay dolphins in an international journal in 2011. A tour company that operated dolphin-watching trips off the Queensland coast witnessed shelling in 2013 and 2019, but it was not officially confirmed through scientific research.

Video filmed on Oct. 1, 2025, at Great Sandy Marine Park in Queensland, Australia. A juvenile dolphin lures a fish with a seashell and brings it to the surface as its mother did (left). When the dolphin lifts the seashell upward, the fish bursts out (right)./Courtesy of University of the Sunshine Coast

On July 6 last year, the team saw an adult female nicknamed "Stevie Nicks" repeatedly lifting a large shell made by a sea snail to the surface. Levengood said, "I shouted because I already knew about dolphin shelling." That was the first official confirmation of dolphin shelling on Australia's east coast.

The second observation was made on Oct. 1. Drone footage shows an adult female named "Maserati" and her young offspring, "Bentley." First, Maserati surfaced, lifted a shell, and a fish slipped out. The mother immediately dropped the shell and chased the fish.

Three minutes later, the calf surfaced at the same spot with the same shell in its mouth. Like the mother, the calf gripped the shell's opening with its mouth, tapped it on the water, dropped it, then picked it up again and swam off. The researchers said the calf likely learned the shelling technique by watching its mother.

A young female from a group of chimpanzees living in Uganda's Budongo Forest wrings out water-soaked moss to drink. The so-called moss sponge technique is a behavior this chimpanzee learned by observing her mother./Courtesy of Catherine Hobaiter

◇Tool use spreads through social learning

The UniSC team said dolphins in western and eastern Australia appear to have independently developed the same tool-use method. Fewer than 2% of Shark Bay dolphins used tools. It is not a common technique, but it is certainly the result of social learning—acquired by watching mothers or peers—rather than a random behavior.

Once tools develop in animal societies, they spread through groups in various ways. In 2020, based on 12 years of observations in Shark Bay, University of Zurich researchers found that the shell-based hunting technique is passed from mothers to calves and also learned among peers. The findings were published in the international journal Current Biology.

At the time, the researchers said dolphins are similar to great apes in that tool use spreads vertically from mothers to calves and horizontally among peers. In fact, scientists from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Switzerland reported in PLoS Biology in 2014 that tool use in chimpanzee societies spreads through various forms of social learning.

In Uganda's Budongo Forest, an alpha male named "Nick" invented a way to wring water absorbed in moss and drink it. Nick's mate, a female named "Nambi," watched closely. In just six days, seven chimpanzees in the group began making and using moss sponges. Some learned from their mothers, while others copied peers. It is a representative case showing how new culture spreads in the wild through peer observation. Dolphins' particular affinity for humans may perhaps be because they share a similar culture.

References

Marine Mammal Science (2026). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.70252

Current Biology (2020), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.05.069

PLoS Biology (2014), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001960

Marine Mammal Science (2011), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2010.00409.x

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