A small population of dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia have a documented history of using an unusual tool to help them catch fish: Large, empty snail shells. For the first time, scientists have now observed the same behavior in a different dolphin population on Australia’s east coast. Researchers even filmed a baby dolphin and its mother using a shell to capture fish, suggesting the baby may have learned the skill from its mother — this hadn’t been observed before now, they write in a recent study. “The second I saw it [on the east coast], I was like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, this is huge,” study lead author Alexis Levengood, a lecturer of animal ecology at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, told Mongabay in a video call. In a behavior called “shelling,” bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) can chase fish into large empty sea snail shells, stick their beak inside to trap the fish, and then raise the shell to the water’s surface where the fish slides out into the dolphin’s mouth. “It essentially gives them a competitive edge over other dolphins that aren’t using this type of tool use because it makes it easier for them to catch harder-to-catch fish,” Levengood said. The behavior was first described in 2011 when researchers found roughly 2% of dolphins in Shark Bay demonstrated the skill. It was believed to be a localized behavior until Levengood confirmed three dolphins in Great Sandy Marine Park, Queensland, using the same…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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