Thursday, January 29, 2009

How a dolphin prepares the perfect cuttlefish meal

clipped from scienceblogs.com
a single female bottlenose,
has developed a way of hunting cuttlefish. Not only does she successfully capture them, but she has learned how to prepare them for the perfect meal, with all the skill of a master chef.
Dolphin_eat_cuttlefish.jpg
she flushed the cuttlefish out from its hiding place
dived downwards and pinned it to the floor with her beak
jabbed downwards with a sharp thrust that killed the cuttlefish instantly. The thrust breaks the cuttlebone, a hard structure inside the cuttlefish's body; it snaps so violently that nearby divers can clearly hear the click.
getting rid of the ink would make the meal both tastier and easier to digest
allowed the cuttlefish back to the sand, where she raked its back along the ocean floor. That flayed the skin off its back and released the broken cuttlebone
deboned her prey
she finally settled down to eat her well-won catch
This remarkable series of behaviours are further proof, if proof were needed, for the extraordinarily flexible intelligence of these animals
Dolphins_cuttlefish.jpg
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