FLIPPER has joined the elite. Australian bottlenose dolphins have been spotted using tools – and it seems they can also pass on their specialist knowledge to their offspring. This is the first time cultural transmission has been confirmed in a marine mammal.
Lacking hands, dolphins are limited in what they can do with a tool, but the dolphins of Shark Bay, Western Australia, don’t let this trifling fact stop them. Some break marine sponges off the sea floor and wear them over their snouts while foraging (New Scientist, 19 July 1997, p 23).
“We believe that they use sponges as a kind of glove to protect…
