Dolphins are widely recognised as one of the ocean\u2019s most intelligent animals. Now, researchers say they have captured the first-ever footage of the cetaceans using seashells to help them catch fish. What\u2019s more, it\u2019s thought that mothers may even teach their calves how to do it.<\/p>\n
Two incidences of the behaviour \u2013 recorded by researchers from the\u00a0University of the Sunshine Coast<\/a> (UniSC) off Hervey Bay in Queensland, Australia \u2013 were observed. In one video, a female bottlenose dolphin<\/a> can be seen holding a shell in its mouth, dropping it suddenly, before snatching a fish from the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n Footage, captured in October 2025, shows a female dolphin using a seashell to catch fish. Credit: University of the Sunshine Coast Australia<\/p>\n \u201cWe were on a research boat off Hervey Bay when we spotted a dolphin raising something large out of the water,\u201d says animal behaviouralist and marine mammal expert Alexis Levengood, who led the study, published in the journal\u00a0Marine Mammal Science<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cI started screaming because I know what shelling looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Shelling\u2019 is \u201ca hunting behaviour where dolphins chase fish into large empty shells<\/a>, bring the shell to the surface and then shake it to drain the fish into their mouths,\u201d explains Levengood.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were able to record footage and take photographs of dolphins shelling in the Great Sandy Marine Park, which is the first published record of it on the east coast of Australia,\u201d she adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prior to this record, the only published evidence of dolphins shelling was at Shark Bay in Western Australia \u2013 but no footage was captured there.<\/p>\n As if catching the rare behaviour on camera wasn\u2019t exciting enough, the researchers also noticed an adult female dolphin and calf shelling together, suggesting that the skill is being passed from one generation to the next.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw the mother surface with a shell, the fish inside escaped and the dolphin dropped the shell to chase the fish. Then, minutes afterwards, the dolphin calf picked up the shell and held it the same way as its mother,\u201d says Levengood.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur footage provides the first potential evidence of maternal social transmission \u2013 a process by which offspring learn behaviour by observing the actions of its mother. It challenges the belief that dolphins learn this tool use from their peers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Footage shows a dolphin calf shelling. Credit: University of the Sunshine Coast Australia<\/p>\n Levengood and the team say the observations in Queensland, coupled with those in Western Australia, show that dolphins thousands of miles apart have learned to use tools in the exact same way.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a lot we don\u2019t know and many questions we will hopefully ask and answer with time. But better understanding of shelling, and other tool use in non-human animals<\/a>, will continue to teach us more about ourselves and how and why we evolved the way we did.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese findings highlight how smart, clever and innovative dolphins are,\u201d adds Levengood.\u00a0<\/p>\n