"Dr. Léonie Huijser from UQ's School of Veterinary Science made the surprise discovery as she investigated the social structure of Moreton Bay's population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins for her Ph.D. thesis.
"Within the dolphins' social network, I found a cluster that would consistently patrol moored boats, waiting for recreational fishers to illegally toss them discarded bait or catches," Dr. Huijser said. "Fishing is popular in the bay and it seems some dolphins have learned to exploit it."
Dr. Huijser said the begging behavior was dangerous for the dolphins, and she was concerned it could spread throughout the population.
"Dolphins learn behavior from their peers," she said. "If these 'beggar' dolphins start to associate with 'non-beggar' dolphins, the behavior may spread rapidly, making it a population-wide problem."
Pods of dolphins displaying these behaviors have also been sighted off Bribie Island and North Stradbroke Island.
"Some of the dolphins who boldly approach boats have evidence of propeller strike and fishing line entanglement," Dr. Huijser said.
Professor Michael Noad supervised Dr. Huijser's research project, and said her findings show how adaptable bottlenose dolphins were and how this influenced their social structures.
"Not all adaptations are positive and begging is an example of an adaptive strategy that may have short-term gain but long-term risks," Professor Noad said."
Sounds like they should team up with orcas to start shaking down recreational fishers.
I hears you've been having some disturbances in the neighborhood lately. What if we could take care of that for yous? Some of my boys from the pod will come by next week and see how you're doing.
Lmao love how they blame the perfectly logical behaviour of the dolphns and not the actual problem (the propellers and the fishing lines)
No these dolphins need to learn hard work and not rely on handouts.
Oh what's that global fish stocks have been destroyed by 70% and the UN predicts a fish free ocean by 2050?
No its the dolphins who are wrong
In a world of
overfishingcompetitive fishing I think dolphins need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They are clearly losing in the free market of fishing, and should work harder and smarter rather than beg for free handouts.this of all things is what gets my home town on the front page? Theres no way in hell the chuds who frequent moreton bay will stand for it. Fishing is such a contentious issue they formed a political party for it.
