Observations of Shelling Behavior and Potential Evidence of Vertical Social Learning by Bottlenose Dolphins in the Great Sandy Marine Park, Queensland Australia

Alexis L. Levengood; Georgina V. Hume; Jessica M. Buckman; Isla Steel; Bridget E. Toohey; Peter Lynch; Cassandra Smith

doi:10.1111/mms.70252

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Observations of Shelling Behavior and Potential Evidence of Vertical Social Learning by Bottlenose Dolphins in the Great Sandy Marine Park, Queensland Australia

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Observations of Shelling Behavior and Potential Evidence of Vertical Social Learning by Bottlenose Dolphins in the Great Sandy Marine Park, Queensland Australia

Alexis L. Levengood, Georgina V. Hume, Jessica M. Buckman, Isla Steel, Bridget E. Toohey, Peter Lynch and Cassandra Smith

Marine Mammal Science, Vol.42(4), pp.1-6

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.70252

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Abstract

bailer shell

foraging

life below water

maternal transmission

object manipulation

social transmission

specialization

tool use

Tursiops aduncus

Animal tool use has long been of interest to biologists, anthropologists, and psychologists due to the potentially important ecological, cognitive, cultural, and evolutionary consequences (Mann and Patterson 2013; Lancaster 1968; Gibson and Ingold 1995; Matsuzawa 2001). Among dolphins, tool use has been well established in Shark Bay (Malgana country), Western Australia where two different foraging tactics have been classified as tool use. These include: (i) sponge foraging (hereafter sponging), where a subset of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) use marine basket sponges to protect their rostra during foraging on benthic prey (Smolker et al. 1997; Patterson and Mann 2011; Krützen et al. 2005), and (ii) shell foraging (hereafter shelling), where some individuals feed on fish hiding inside large (dead) marine gastropod shells by lifting the shells into the air and subsequently draining the prey (Wild et al. 2020; Mann and Patterson 2013; Allen et al. 2011).

Details

Title: Observations of Shelling Behavior and Potential Evidence of Vertical Social Learning by Bottlenose Dolphins in the Great Sandy Marine Park, Queensland Australia
Authors: Alexis L. Levengood (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Georgina V. Hume (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Jessica M. Buckman (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Isla Steel (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Bridget E. Toohey (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Peter Lynch (Author) - Blue Dolphin Marine Tours (Australia)
Cassandra Smith - Blue Dolphin Marine Tours (Australia)
Publication details: Marine Mammal Science, Vol.42(4), pp.1-6
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1111/mms.70252
ISSN: 1748-7692
Copyright note: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2026 The Author(s). Marine Mammal Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Marine Mammalogy.
Data Availability: Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generatedor analysed during the current study.
Grant note: This work was supported by the Winifred Violet Scott Charitable Trust and CID Foundation.
Organisation Unit: Marketing and Communications; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991250406602621
Output Type: Journal article

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