Dolphins Use Sea Sponges as Tools While Foraging

Some dolphins use sea sponges as tools, placing them over their snouts while searching the seafloor, and mothers pass the behavior to their young.

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In Shark Bay, Western Australia, some wild bottlenose dolphins have developed an unusual form of tool use: they carry pieces of marine sponge on the front of their snouts while foraging along the seafloor. The sponge can help protect the sensitive rostrum from rough surfaces and potentially sharp or stinging objects as the dolphin probes for prey hidden in the sediment. The behavior is especially interesting because it is not simply a universal instinct shared by every dolphin in the population. Only a subset uses this technique, and observations indicate that young dolphins learn it socially, with mothers playing an important role in passing the behavior to their offspring. Research has also found that dolphins using sponges tend to associate more with other sponge users, supporting the idea that the behavior forms part of a socially learned tradition. Scientists describe this as a striking example of animal tool use because the dolphin selects an external object, carries it, and uses it to make a particular foraging task safer or more effective. The behavior does not mean dolphins manufacture complex tools, and researchers continue to study exactly how much of the technique is learned through observation, environmental opportunity, and individual experience. Still, the sponge-carrying strategy shows how flexible animal behavior can emerge in the wild and be maintained within a social group.

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