Rare footage shows dolphins using empty seashells as fishing tools, a skill called “bombing.”

Dolphins don’t hunt in the same way. Some develop local feeding methods that require memory, timing, and skillful handling of nearby objects.

New footage from Queensland shows Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins using large, empty shells to catch fish.

behavior, called bombingIt may offer a rare glimpse of a calf learning by watching its mother.

Dolphins use shells to hunt

Tool use occurs when an animal manipulates an object to achieve a goal. During the strike, the dolphin lifts the empty sea snail shell with its snout, holds it up, and shakes the fish.

Researchers have previously documented bombardments only at Shark Bay in Western Australia, where less than two percent of known dolphins use the technique.

University of Sunshine Coast (UNESC) led the new work, with Dr. Alexis Livengood as the lead author.

“We were on a research boat off Hervey Bay when we saw a dolphin lift something large out of the water. I started screaming because I know what pounding feels like,” Dr Livengood said.

Two scenes capture shellfishing

“It is a hunting behavior in which dolphins chase fish to large, empty shells, bring the shells to the surface, and then shake them to discharge the fish into their mouths,” Dr. Livengood said.

“We were able to record footage and capture images of shelling dolphins at Great Sandy Marine Park, the first published recording of them on the east coast of Australia.”

The team recorded two events near Hervey Bay on 6 July and 1 October 2025. The first involved an adult female named Stevie Nix, who raised a rescue shell – a large shell made by… Sea snail – On the roof several times.

Rain ended the watch after nine minutes. Therefore, the team could not confirm whether the fish had left the shell or whether the dolphin had successfully completed the hunt.

The calf imitates its mother’s technique

The second event included an adult female named Maserati and her calf, Bentley.

Drone footage showed the mother lifting a shell before the fish escaped. Then I dropped the shell and chased the fish.

Three minutes later, the calf appeared by the same coincidence in the same place. She grabbed the hole around her snout as her mother had done, hit the shell on the water, dropped it, picked it up again, and swam away.

“We saw the mother float to the surface with a shell. The fish inside it escaped, and the dolphin dropped the shell to chase the fish. Minutes later, the dolphin appeared.” Dolphin Dr. Livengood noted that the calf picked up the shell and carried it in the same way as its mother.

Mothers can teach shell hunting

“Our footage provides the first possible evidence of maternal social transmission, a process by which offspring learn behavior by observing their mothers’ actions,” Dr. Livengood said. “It challenges the belief that dolphins learn to use this tool from their peers.”

Social learning means picking up one behavior by watching another animal.

Maternal social transmission is a form of social learning, but this single event does not prove that the mother taught the calf or that the calf has never handled a shell before.

“These findings highlight how smart, intelligent and innovative dolphins are,” Dr Livengood said.

Dolphins have been bombed for years

“We learned that bombing had been photographed during boat trips conducted by Blue Dolphin Marine Tours in 2013 and 2019, suggesting that bombing had occurred in this population for a longer period than expected but had gone unnoticed due to limited research in the area,” Dr Livengood said.

“Our observations in Queensland show that dolphins on opposite sides of Australia learned to use tools in exactly the same way, independently of each other.”

Dr. Livengood said there was still a lot to learn about bombing. Studying this behavior and other forms of animal tool use can also help explain how some human abilities evolved.

Separate populations found solutions

Old photos showed dolphins carrying shells in the same general area seen in 2025.

Records of the exact location were not available, but photographs indicate that bombing occurred near Hervey Bay at least 12 years ago.

Records from both Australian coasts support the idea that separate dolphin groups independently evolved the same hunting solution. The bombing may remain unannounced because each attempt can last only a few seconds.

Previous computer simulations from Shark Bay suggested that dolphins typically learn to bomb through social connections outside of the mother-calf bond.

The Queensland footage suggests that mothers may pass this behavior on to their young, although researchers need more observations to test this possibility.

Bombing requires precise skills

Bombardment may be more than just a chance response to a fish hiding in an empty shell. This specialized feeding method is used by only a portion of the population, is repeated over time, and relies on knowledge or physical control.

The dolphin must find a suitable shell, keep it without losing the fish, and use it where there are shells and prey. This method may provide access to food that other dolphins leave behind as they shrink a race For the same prey.

The Queensland juveniles included two adult females and one calf, the sex of which was unknown.

Such a small group cannot explain whether females use this method more than males, although some other specialized dolphin hunting methods are more common among females.

More dolphin sightings are needed

The team observed only two attacks by three dolphins.

It was not possible to confirm whether any dolphin caught a fish, and researchers were unable to identify the suspect with certainty lizardfish Seen when opening the calf’s shell.

Footage records behavior rather than providing direct evidence of teaching. It shows that the calf handled the shell shortly after its mother did so, but it does not reveal what the calf understood or how much previous practice it had.

The strongest conclusion is that bombing occurs on the east and west coasts of Australia.

The mother-calf sequence raises a valuable possibility about how the skill spread, but more observations are needed before researchers can confirm this learning pathway.

The study is published in the journal Marine mammal science.

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