Overview
- Researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast published the first peer‑reviewed video evidence of 'shelling' — dolphins chasing prey into empty gastropod shells, lifting the shell to the surface and draining the catch — based on two detailed Hervey Bay encounters recorded in 2025.
- One October 2025 sequence shows an adult female named Maserati handling a baler shell and, minutes later, her calf Bentley picking up the same shell and attempting the same motions, which the authors present as potential evidence of vertical (maternal) social learning.
- Observers could not confirm whether the filmed attempts produced successful meals because events were brief and visibility was poor, and published Queensland records remain small in number.
- The new footage complements earlier Shark Bay records and raises two possibilities: separate dolphin populations may have invented the same tactic independently under similar ecological conditions or the behaviour could spread culturally within populations.
- Authors and commentators say larger, systematic studies are needed using more observations, individual tracking, social‑network and genetic data and ecological surveys to test how common shelling is and whether it spreads by learning or by repeated independent invention.