Footage Captures Dolphin's Clever Mud Rings

Apr 08, 2020 by apost team

Several years ago, filmmakers working on a BBC Earth documentary called “One Life” filmed something they had never seen before. A pod of bottlenose dolphins living off the coast of Florida displayed a novel hunting technique by creating mud rings around fish.

BBC captured an amazing hunting technique in their documentary, "One Life." One dolphin will quickly swim in a circle around a shoal of fish while vigorously beating its tail. This will stir up the mud on the seabed. As the dolphin swims in an ever-tightening ring, the mud ring acts as a fishing net and traps the fish within. The dolphin and its pod-mates then enjoy an easy meal as the fish panic and try to jump out – only to land in the dolphins’ mouths. 

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Dolphins are known for their highly individualistic behaviors. Different pods in different areas will do different things. For example, BBC Earth News reported that some dolphins in Australia will grab conch shells from the bottom of the sea and carry them to the surface. They will then upend them and eat any fish that fall out.

Other Australian dolphins are “spongers,” which means they will carry sea sponges in their mouths while hunting on the bottom of the ocean to protect their noses.

Similarly, the Florida dolphins are the only ones known to use mud rings to catch fish. Scientists aren’t sure how the dolphins developed the tactic. According to National Geographic it is speculated that one dolphin may have simply been experimenting with ways to use mud as a means of trapping fish and found that mud rings worked the best. It then taught its friends and family how to fish with mud rings.

Scientists in Florida actually first observed mud ring feeding back in 1999. They later described it in the journal “Gulf of Mexico Science.” The researchers noted that regardless of how many dolphins were present, only one would create the ring. They also noted that dolphins only used the tactic in shallow water with a mean depth of around three feet.

Have you read this story? Did you know that different dolphin populations had different hunting techniques? Please post your comments in the box below.