{"id":287091,"date":"2026-02-16T18:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/287091\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T18:49:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:49:06","slug":"beaching-here-could-be-lethal-dolphins-in-south-carolina-have-developed-a-genius-but-deadly-hunting-strategy-watch-the-tense-attenborough-narrated-footage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/287091\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBeaching here could be lethal.\u201d Dolphins in South Carolina have developed a genius \u2013 but deadly \u2013 hunting strategy. Watch the tense Attenborough-narrated footage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Famed for their intelligence, dolphins have developed an array of incredible hunting techniques. Whether using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/predators-that-kill-with-tools\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tools such as sponges and shells<\/a> to access prey, or rounding up fish by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/marine-animals\/how-whales-kill\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">creating mud nets<\/a> or forcing them to form <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/what-is-sardine-run\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bait balls<\/a>, they cooperate and share knowledge in unprecedented ways.<\/p>\n<p>But in South Carolina, USA, bottlenose dolphins have developed an extraordinary hunting technique. To gulp down larger quantities of fish, younger dolphins were seen beaching themselves on the mudbanks.<\/p>\n<p>This is only possible during a three-hour window (around low tide) each day while the oyster-covered banks are exposed. The dolphins will only be successful if they choose shoreline where the angle is just right \u2013 not too level and not too steep.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeaching here could be lethal,\u201d explains David Attenborough in footage filmed for the BBC TV series The Hunt, which documented this behaviour.<\/p>\n<p>Working as a group, the dolphins drive fish towards the shore, creating a bow wave to push them up the mudbanks.<\/p>\n<p>But each time they do this, the risk to the dolphins increases.<\/p>\n<p>These bottlenose dolphins aren\u2019t the only animals that use beaching as a hunting technique. Perhaps most famously, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/marine-animals\/astonishing-footage-shows-orcas-hunting-sea-lion-puppies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">orcas in Patagonia beach themselves<\/a> to snatch sea lion pups from the shoreline. And in France, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/fish\/wels-catfish-eating-pigeons\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wels catfish<\/a> have developed a taste for pigeons \u2013 so they must launch themselves onto gravel riverbanks.<\/p>\n<p>The strategy can be dangerous \u2013 any of the animals can end up stranding ashore in pursuit of prey \u2013 but the possibility of increased food clearly outweighs the risk. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Top image: a screenshot from BBC series rushes of dolphins mass beaching in an attempt to catch stranded fish, South Carolina, USA. Credit: BBC Natural History via Getty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Famed for their intelligence, dolphins have developed an array of incredible hunting techniques. Whether using tools such as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-287091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}