Dolphins are the chefs of the seas, having been seen going through precise and elaborate preparations to rid cuttlefish of ink and bone to produce a soft meal of calamari. A wild female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin was observed going through the same series of complicated steps to prepare cuttlefish prey for eating, which shows how well their brains are developed. A separate study showed dolphins may be capable of group learning and using tools, with a mother seen teaching her daughters to break off sea sponges and wear them as protection while scouring the seafloor in Western Australia. The mammals used the sponges “as a kind of glove” while searching for food, and other researchers have observed dolphins removing the spines from flathead fish prey and breaking metre-long Golden Trevally fish into smaller pieces for eating. __
