Sentient Beings? Of Course!

[Guest guest]

It always amazes me that people " discover " that animals may be

sentient beings like humans. Then they promptly and conveniently

forget it and continue killing them...

 

Dolphins are capable sea chefs, scientists say

Rob Taylor Rob Taylor – Fri Jan 30, 12:42 am ET

 

CANBERRA (Reuters) – 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,

Australian scientists say.

 

A wild female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin was observed going

through the same series of complicated steps to prepare cuttlefish

prey for eating in the Spencer Gulf, in South Australia state.

 

" It's a sign of how well their brains are developed. It's a pretty

clever way to get pure calamari without all the horrible bits, " Mark

Norman, the curator of mollusks at Museum Victoria and a research

team member, told the Canberra Times newspaper.

 

The research team, writing in the science journal PLoS One, said they

repeatedly observed a female dolphin herding cuttlefish out of algal

weed and onto a clear, sandy patch of seafloor.

 

The dolphin, identified using circular body scars, then pinned the

cuttlefish with its snout while standing on its head, before killing

it instantly with a rapid downward thrust and " loud click " audible to

divers as the hard cuttlebone broke.

 

The dolphin then lifted the body up and beat it with her nose to

drain the toxic black ink that cuttlefish squirt into the water to

defend themselves when attacked.

 

Next the prey was taken back to the seafloor, where the dolphin

scraped it along the sand to strip out the cuttlebone, making the

cuttlefish soft for eating.

 

Norman and study co-author Tom Tregenza, from the University of

Exeter, said the behavior exhibited between 2003 and 2007 was

unlikely to be a rarity.

 

" In addition to our observations, individual bottlenose dolphins

feeding at these cuttlefish spawning grounds have been observed by

divers in the area to perform the same behavioral sequence, " they

said in the study.

 

" The feeding behavior reported here is specifically adapted to a

single prey type and represents impressive behavioral flexibility for

a non-primate animal. "

 

A separate 2005 study provided the first sign 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, University of Zurich researcher Michael Krutzen told New

Scientist magazine.

 

Other researchers have observed dolphins removing the spines from

flathead fish prey and breaking meter-long Golden Trevally fish into

smaller pieces for eating.

 

(Editing by Sugita Katyal)

 

http://news./s/nm/20090130/sc_nm/us_australia_dolphins