The U.S. Navy caught video footage of their dolphins gobbling up poisonous sea snakes after strapping cameras to the mammals and releasing them to hunt in the San Diego Bay, according to Science Alert.
“The cameras, strapped to six bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from the US National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF), recorded six months of footage and audio – providing us with new insights into these mammals’ hunting strategies and communications,” Science Alert reported. (RELATED: Police Arrest PA Man For Allegedly Trying To Buy Stolen Human Remains. His Mug Shot Is About What You’d Expect)
“The dolphin clicked as it approached the snake and then sucked it in with a bit more head jerking as the flopping snake tail disappeared and the dolphin made a long squeal,” NMMF wrote.
The dolphins “displayed no signs of illness” after consuming the snakes.
NMMF wrote that they caught footage of the dolphins eating live fish, “for the first time.”
“While freely swimming in San Diego Bay, one dolphin caught 69 resident fish, 64 demersal, 5 near the surface, while the other caught 40, 36 demersal and 4 near the surface. Two other dolphins were observed capturing 135 live native fish in a sea water pool.”
The footage showed dolphins using both”sight and sound” to catch their prey.
“At distance the dolphins always used echolocation to find fish. Up close, vision and echolocation appeared to be used together,” the research team wrote.
In August 2021, researchers got a photo of dolphins handling a massive Beni anaconda snake. But researchers determined that “they rather were playing with the snake than trying to eat it.”