Author: SBDR Team

Popular Science, August 2011 The first isolated instances of conching were recorded in 2007 and 2009 among a small group of Shark Bay’s dolphins. But other dolphins seem to be observing that behavior and learning the method for themselves–in the last four months alone, researchers have documented the behavior six or seven times–marking a very…

Wired, August 2011 Already famed as Earth’s first tool-using marine mammals, the bottlenose dolphins of Australia’s Shark Bay have proved handy yet again, by using conch shells to trap tasty fish, then shaking them into their mouths like sardines from a tin. https://www.wired.com/2011/08/dolphin-fishing/ https://www.wired.com/2011/08/dolphin-fishing/

Phys.org, August 2011 “If – and that is a big if – we are witnessing the horizontal spread of this behaviour, then I would assume that it spreads by an associate of a ‘conching’ dolphin closely observing the behaviour and then imitating it,” Mr. Allen said. https://phys.org/news/2011-08-ingenious-fishing-method-dolphins.html https://phys.org/news/2011-08-ingenious-fishing-method-dolphins.html

BBC Earth News, September 2010 “Shark Bay dolphins are known as clever inventors, showing a remarkable range of foraging tactics, which are unprecedented in other cetacean populations,” says biologist Dr Michael Krützen of the University of Zurich, Switzerland. https://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8975000/8975919.stm https://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8975000/8975919.stm

New Scientist, September 2010 For many years researchers in Western Australia’s Shark Bay have noticed Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins hefting and shaking heavy conch shells out of the water for several minutes. What were they up to? https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19421-meet-william-the-concherer-the-dolphin-that-can-fish/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19421-meet-william-the-concherer-the-dolphin-that-can-fish/

National Geographic Television, 1997 IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386415/

The New York Times, 1992 Researchers who have spent thousands of hours observing the behavior of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Australia have discovered that the males form social alliances with one another that are far more sophisticated and devious than any seen in animals apart from human beings. They have found that one…