Famed for their intelligence, dolphins have developed an array of incredible hunting techniques. Whether using tools such as sponges and shells to access prey, or rounding up fish by creating mud nets or forcing them to form bait balls, they cooperate and share knowledge in unprecedented ways.
But in South Carolina, USA, bottlenose dolphins have developed an extraordinary hunting technique. To gulp down larger quantities of fish, younger dolphins were seen beaching themselves on the mudbanks.
This is only possible during a three-hour window (around low tide) each day while the oyster-covered banks are exposed. The dolphins will only be successful if they choose shoreline where the angle is just right – not too level and not too steep.
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“Beaching here could be lethal,” explains David Attenborough in footage filmed for the BBC TV series The Hunt, which documented this behaviour.
Working as a group, the dolphins drive fish towards the shore, creating a bow wave to push them up the mudbanks.
But each time they do this, the risk to the dolphins increases.
These bottlenose dolphins aren’t the only animals that use beaching as a hunting technique. Perhaps most famously, orcas in Patagonia beach themselves to snatch sea lion pups from the shoreline. And in France, Wels catfish have developed a taste for pigeons – so they must launch themselves onto gravel riverbanks.
The strategy can be dangerous – any of the animals can end up stranding ashore in pursuit of prey – but the possibility of increased food clearly outweighs the risk.
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Top image: a screenshot from BBC series rushes of dolphins mass beaching in an attempt to catch stranded fish, South Carolina, USA. Credit: BBC Natural History via Getty
