Dolphins learn to shell from their mothers

Researchers have recorded what appears to be an Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) mother giving its calf a lesson in a hunting technique called shelling. The seldom-observed behaviour involves the dolphin catching a fish in an empty sea snail shell, lifting the shell out of the water and shaking it to drop the fish into its mouth. The team spotted an adult female surfacing with a shell containing a fish, and a calf lifting the same shell a few minutes later, which suggests that it was learning from watching its mother, they say.