Delfine wurden beim Jagen mit Muscheln gefilmt – und gaben möglicherweise ihre Fähigkeiten an ihre Nachkommen weiter. Delfine jagen ihre Beute in ein großes, leeres Muschelgehäuse, heben das Gehäuse dann über Wasser und verschlingen den Inhalt. Studie liefert erste Hinweise darauf, dass Mütter ihren Kälbern möglicherweise die Beschussstrategie beibringen.

**Dolphins Filmed Hunting With Shells – And Possibly Passing The Skill to Their Offspring**

Dolphins off the coast of Queensland, Australia, have been captured on film using a rarely-sighted technique known as ’shelling‘ to hunt their prey.

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins ([*Tursiops aduncus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pacific_bottlenose_dolphin)), also known as ‚buthu‘ in the Indigenous Butchulla language, are intelligent animals known for their tool use.

But very few people have ever seen the dolphins‘ shelling in action, let alone caught it on camera.
The new videos, captured at Hervey Bay, were presented by researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast in a study published in [*Marine Mammal Biology*](https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.70252).

So, what actually is shelling?

In their hunt for food, the dolphins will chase their prey – a small fish, perhaps – into a large, empty seasnail shell.

Then, the dolphin pokes their ‚bottlenose‘, aka rostrum, into the opening of the shell, quickly raising the shell above the water and gulping down the contents trapped within.

The new footage from Hervey Bay, captured in 2025, provides the first evidence that mothers may actually be teaching the shelling strategy to their calves.

In the videos, an adult female dolphin and her calf were documented shelling in tandem.

„We saw a mom shell first, pick up the shell and drain the fish… and you can actually see in our drone footage, the fish escapes the shell, and the mom chases the fish down,“ Levengood said.

„Within minutes of dropping her shell, her calf picked up the shell and was doing the same thing.“

Levengood isn’t sure if the calf or its mother succeeded in eating the trapped fish, but the calf’s involvement indicates the youngster might have been in the process of learning from mom.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.70252