{"id":3166,"date":"2026-09-05T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/shell-prison-the-fascinating-dolphin-hunting-technique-captured-on-film\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T16:25:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T15:25:01","slug":"shell-prison-the-fascinating-dolphin-hunting-technique-captured-on-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/shell-prison-the-fascinating-dolphin-hunting-technique-captured-on-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Shell Prison: The Fascinating Dolphin Hunting Technique Captured on Film"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Off the coast of Australia, scientists filmed a spectacular hunting technique in large dolphins, illustrating once again the intelligence of these creatures and their highly social nature.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The \u00ab shelling \u00bb<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Documented in the waters of Queensland, in northeastern Australia, this behavior involves the use of a large shell that cetaceans use as a trap. Holding the object in their mouth, they pursue schools of fish, and once their prey is trapped, they surface and swallow it.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">The world&#8217;s largest luminescent vertebrate is a shark with a sparkling belly<\/span><\/section>\n<p>As the authors of the new study explain, published in the journal <em>Marine Mammal Science<\/em>, the first observations of this \u201c<em>shelling<\/em>\u201d came from Shark Bay, along the west coast of Australia, which suggests transmission within the same group, as well as to other geographically distinct groups.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>We watched a juvenile carefully observe its mother. Re-emerging at the surface with a shell and a fish trapped inside. When the latter escaped from its prison, she dropped this tool and continued her meal<\/em>,\u201d write the team. \u201c<em>A few minutes later, the juvenile seized the same shell in its mouth, and held it exactly in the same way as its mother.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Alexis Levengood, from the University of the Sunshine Coast, this is probably the first evidence of maternal social transmission of a tool-using hunting behavior among dolphins. \u201c<em>Their use in non-human species helps illuminate our own evolution and its mechanisms<\/em>,\u201d the researcher says.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">In the depths of Lake Superior, \u201czombie fish\u201d are multiplying rapidly<\/span><\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"cssc-content-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Dolphins caught on camera using seashells to catch fish\" width=\"680\" height=\"383\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/J1448T0BdoU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Unusual cases of cultural transmission observed in other species<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Among the most intriguing cases of cultural transmission in animals, research conducted in Zambia last year revealed a novel craze among chimpanzees described as \u201c<em>fashionistas<\/em>.\u201d Persisting long after the instigator\u2019s death, named Julie, it involved inserting blades of grass into their ears\u2026 and their hindquarters.<\/p>\n<p>About forty years ago, groups of orcas roaming the northeast Pacific were observed wearing dead salmon on their heads as a headdress. If such behaviors have been reported again in recent years, the true reason behind them remains unknown.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2020, these cetaceans have also been making headlines in Spanish waters. In six years, they have sunk no fewer than eight boats, usually by destroying their rudder.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">In 1888, tens of thousands of sheep fled the same night in Oxfordshire, with no explanation found to date<\/span><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2284,2283,533,1201,312,2282,2281,1889],"class_list":["post-3166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-captured","tag-dolphin","tag-fascinating","tag-film","tag-hunting","tag-prison","tag-shell","tag-technique","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3168,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3166\/revisions\/3168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}