Male humpback dolphins have been spotted parading sea sponges on their heads to impress females off Western Australia’s northern coast.<\/p>\n
Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) senior research scientist Holly Raudino and her team recently observed the unusual behaviour, which she said occurred in a sexual context.<\/p>\n
“They are (the sponges) different shapes and sizes, different colours, but it all seems to be in this one particular area,” Dr Raudino said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Holly Raudino says more research is needed on the species’ use of sponges. (Supplied: DBCA)<\/p>\n
The technique has only been observed in a handful of areas in the Pilbara and the Kimberley, including the Exmouth Gulf and Dampier.<\/p>\n
Dr Raudino said while the species were found elsewhere, the behaviour had not been reported anywhere else, or in any other species of dolphin.<\/p>\n
Humpback dolphins are listed as vulnerable under the National Environmental Protection Act, with less than 10,000 mature adults estimated worldwide.<\/p>\n
“It’s a really small and important population,” she said.<\/p>\n
Female bottle-nosed dolphins can be seen sponging for fish in Monkey Mia. (Supplied: Aristocat 2 Cruises)<\/p>\n
Sponges as a fishing tool<\/p>\n
Further south, another type of dolphin has also been seen carrying sea sponges, but experts say it was for a different reason.<\/p>\n
Liam Ridgley, an operator of sea life cruises at Monkey Mia in Shark Bay, said the local Indo-Pacific bottlenose pod used sponges to flush fish out from the coral.<\/p>\n
“They’re carrying a sea sponge on their rostrum or snout, and they’re digging around in the seabed using it as a bit of a glove to stop their face getting cut up on the rocks and coral and stuff on the seabed,” Mr Ridgley said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Liam Ridgley says females pass the sponging behaviour on to their calves. (ABC News: Alistair Bates)<\/p>\n
He said dolphins in the area were spotted “sponging” in the 1980s, providing some of the first-ever evidence of marine mammals using tools.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Bytfluke, a 52-year-old female dolphin, has been sponging in Shark Bay for at least 40 years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bottlenose dolphins are the only other species that are known to use sponges. (Supplied: Aristocat 2 Cruises)<\/p>\n
Mr Ridgley said the technique was practised by about 40 dolphins out of the 3,000 in Shark Bay, predominantly by females who passed it on to their calves.<\/p>\n
“With this species, I definitely think the females are more intelligent,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s very special to see, very spectacular.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Male humpback dolphins have been spotted parading sea sponges on their heads to impress females off Western Australia’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[72407,72408,72412,67917,66375,72406,72411,111,139,69,147,72410,72409,72405,406],"class_list":["post-98376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-animal-behaviours","tag-animal-science","tag-bottlenose-dolphin","tag-dolphin","tag-humpback-dolphins","tag-mating-ritual","tag-monkey-mia","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-shark-bay","tag-sponging","tag-wigs","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98376","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=98376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}