Like humans, apes and crows, dolphins use tools to explore the parts others cannot reach
In one population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in Shark Bay, Western Australia, members use sponges for foraging. Lacking hands, they pick up and wear the sponges over their rostra (beak), possibly to protect themselves from sharp objects and noxious critters when probing in the sea floor sediment.
Previous work has shown that it is mainly daughters that learn the sponging behaviour from their mothers, and that this is passed on through social learning cultural transmission. As among humans and as documented in numerous other animal species, the innovation of sponging is transmitted via social learning mechanisms between individuals, such as daughters closely observing their mothers when they use sponges as tools.
The sponging-foraging technique was thought to be part of dolphins' efforts to find nutritious, bottom-dwelling fish that do not have a swim bladder. As the dolphins' echolocation sense uses the swim bladder to detect fish, a lack of it makes it hard or impossible for the dolphin to detect them with sonar. But until now there’s not been much evidence to support this idea.
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Cultural transmission, including of tool use, has been identified as the major driver of human evolution. The dolphins' method for finding new food sources has led to a significant reduction in competition for food – perhaps one of the reasons why it is in Shark Bay that the highest density of dolphins are found.
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https://theconversation.com/like-humans-apes-and-crows-dolphins-use-tools-to-explore-the-parts-others-cannot-reach-25847
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