Picture a dolphin diving toward the seafloor with something odd on its nose. It is not a shell or a fish. It is a sea sponge. The dolphin isn’t playing; it’s using the sponge as a diving mask: a clear ...

Some Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia use sea sponges as tools to protect their snouts while hunting hidden prey, a behavior known as “sponging.” Sponging occurs only ...

BOTTLE NOSE DOLPHIN SWIMMING FAST AND PLAY WITH SPONGE© Yann hubert/Shutterstock.com In Shark Bay, Western Australia, some Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins use sponges as tools while they hunt.