These bottlenose dolphins<\/a> don a sponge on their beak, akin to a clone nose, allowing them to safely shovel through rocky seabed channels. This method stirs up barred sandperch, making them an easy meal.<\/p>\n However, new research published in the journal Royal Society Open Science reveals this inherited behaviour is more challenging than it appears. <\/p>\n The sponge, while protective, interferes with the dolphins’ sophisticated echolocation system<\/a>, their primary means of navigation and sensing through sound.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n A bottlenose dolphin wearing a marine sponge on its nose to forage swims in Shark Bay, Australia (AP)<\/p>\n \u201cIt has a muffling effect in the way that a mask might,\u201d said co-author Ellen Rose Jacobs, a marine biologist at the University of Aarhus in Denmark<\/a>. \u201cEverything looks a little bit weird, but you can still learn how to compensate.” <\/p>\n Jacobs used an underwater microphone to confirm that the \u201csponging\u201d dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, were still using echolocation clicks to guide them. Then she modelled the extent of the sound wave distortion from the sponges.<\/p>\n For those wild dolphins that have mastered foraging with nose sponges, scientists say it’s a very efficient way to catch fish. The wild marine sponges vary from the size of a softball to a cantaloupe. <\/p>\n Sponge hunting is \u201clike hunting when you\u2019re blindfolded \u2014 you\u2019ve got to be very good, very well-trained to pull it off,” said Mauricio Cantor, a marine biologist at Oregon State University<\/a>, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n The skill can take many years to learn and not all dolphins stick with it (AP)<\/p>\n That difficulty may explain why it’s rare \u2014 with only about 5% of the dolphin population studied by the researchers in Shark Bay doing it. That\u2019s about 30 dolphins total, said Jacobs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes them many years to learn this special hunting skill \u2014 not everybody sticks with it,\u201d said marine ecologist Boris Worm at Dalhousie University in Canada<\/a>, who was not involved in the study.<\/p>\n Dolphin calves usually spend around three or four years with their mothers, observing and learning crucial life skills.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Dolphins-Sponge-Nose-zlaoj8he.jpeg\")
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