A Mama Dolphin Named Maserati Taught Her Baby a Tool Trick

Professor Pip stood on a sunny wooden dock, his tail flicking against the boards. The bay sparkled turquoise. From his enormous coat pocket he produced — well, a very large, empty spiral seashell, about the size of a football.

"My fellow scientists!" he called. Mia and Leo padded over, along with their friend Asha, who was clutching a red plastic fish. "Today we're going to learn about a dolphin who invented a spoon."

"A spoon?" giggled Asha.

"Watch." Pip set the shell on the dock, opening upward. He held out his paw. "Asha, drop your fish."

She dropped it. It bounced across the boards and — plop! — slid neatly inside the shell.

Pip lifted the shell high, tilted it, and the fish tumbled straight down toward his open paw. The children clapped.

"That," Pip announced, spectacles slipping, "is called tool use. When a creature picks up an object and uses it to get a job done, that's a tool. Only a small number of animals in the world do it — some crows, some chimps, some sea otters, and... a very few dolphins in Australia."

Leo's eyes got round. "Dolphins use tools?"

"Precisely!" said Pip. "Off a bay called Hervey Bay, a research drone filmed a mother dolphin named Maserati. She chased a small fish into a giant empty snail shell — bigger than my paw, like this one — then poked her beak in, lifted the whole shell above the water, and shook it until the fish tumbled into her mouth. The scientists call the trick shelling."

"Like a snack cup!" said Mia.

"Exactly right, a snack cup." Pip's tail swished. "But here's the best part. Just minutes after Maserati did it, her calf — her baby, named Bentley — picked up the very same shell and held it the same way. It's the first time scientists have caught a dolphin baby copying a tool trick straight from its mom on camera."

"So she taught him?" asked Leo.

"That's the mystery," said Pip softly. "Scientists used to think dolphins learned this trick from friends, the way you might learn a game from a classmate. This little clip suggests some dolphins might learn it from their mothers, too — like you learning to tie your shoes."

He looked out over the water. Somewhere out there, a real Bentley was probably practicing.

"One drone. One lucky afternoon. One curious calf. And a question we thought was answered gets to be interesting again."

He handed each child a small paper cup and a marble. "Now you try — chase the marble into the cup. Every scientist starts with a spoon."