Considering they can't wield a knife or cleaver, dolphins make impressive butchers. Researchers in Australia recently observed a bottlenose performing a precise series of manoeuvres to kill, gut and bone a cuttlefish.
The six-step procedure gets rid of the invertebrate's unappetising ink and hard-to-swallow cuttlebone.
The procedure begins when the dolphin shoos a cuttlefish out of an algal forest into an open patch of the seabed. Next, she pins the cuttlefish down, ramming it into the ground. To rid the body of ink, she uses her snout to pick up the cuttlefish, and then shakes it several times until a black cloud streams out.
Let's walk through that again:
The dolphin begins the routine by shooing a cuttlefish out of hiding
She proceeds to pin it to the sand to kill it
Next, she nudges the invertebrate off the seafloor with her snout
To remove the cuttlefish's ink, which can slow digestion, the dolphin shakes it back and forth
Rubbing the inkless corpse against the sand breaks and releases its indigestible cuttlebone
The filleted cephalopod is now ready to eat!
Success!
Article from NewScientist
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