ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA — A team of Australian scientists have observed wild dolphins learning a trick from a dolphin, reports The Independent.
The wild dolphins reportedly learned how to tail-walk from a dolphin who had spent time in a dolphinarium.
Billie, the dolphin, was rescued from a creek and sent to a dolphinarium in Adelaide, Australia.
While she was at the dolphinarium, she learned the tricks of the trade by watching the other dolphins.
To perform the trick, dolphins have to rise vertically out of the water and move across the surface using their tails, by either going forward or backward.
When Billie was released into the wild, she began doing this regularly. This is when the other dolphins also started picking up the trick.
The study found about nine wild dolphins performing the trick in 2011, although the total number of performing dolphins have since diminished.
Dr Luke Rendell, co-author of the study, says this gives us "a revealing insight into the potential social role of imitation in dolphin communities."
The wild dolphins reportedly learned how to tail-walk from a dolphin who had spent time in a dolphinarium.
Billie, the dolphin, was rescued from a creek and sent to a dolphinarium in Adelaide, Australia.
While she was at the dolphinarium, she learned the tricks of the trade by watching the other dolphins.
To perform the trick, dolphins have to rise vertically out of the water and move across the surface using their tails, by either going forward or backward.
When Billie was released into the wild, she began doing this regularly. This is when the other dolphins also started picking up the trick.
The study found about nine wild dolphins performing the trick in 2011, although the total number of performing dolphins have since diminished.
Dr Luke Rendell, co-author of the study, says this gives us "a revealing insight into the potential social role of imitation in dolphin communities."
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