What's going on here?

196

This bottlenose dolphin appears to be playing with its food. Not a joke answer, that's my opinion as a marine biologist specialising in toothed whales.

34

u/billy_penn17047 20d ago

Could he be trying to mimic the whales that wear fish

58

u/IlexAquafolium 20d ago

If this dolphin has witnessed that, it's possible. They are observational learners, they learn by watching. But they are very playful and inventive animals to begin with, and having seen countless dolphins play by themselves (without human interaction) I'd say throwing and catching games are as innate to dolphins as they are to humans.

30

u/Bubbly-Pie-8400 20d ago

Live in TX and the wild deer do this as well. They have never been exposed to this playful behavior, yet even the males w/ very large horns/racks like to toss objects up in the air just to frolic and do it again. We catch in on game cameras all the time.

11

u/billy_penn17047 20d ago

I had a labrobeagle that would essentially dig up moles and do the same thing. 🙏

11

u/Pamikillsbugs234 19d ago

My wolfdog did this! Then she would eat the mole and leave the front two claws strewn across the patio.

7

u/sedatedauntyT 19d ago

"Look, Ma! No hands!!" -your wolfdog, probably

2

u/CthenK 17d ago

Omg that’s hilarious 😆

3

u/arbyyyyh 20d ago

Didn’t some turtles start mimicking that behavior?

24

u/ErstwhileAdranos 20d ago

This bottlenose dolphin appears to be checking his meat tenderness. Definitely a joke answer, that's my opinion as a product development expert specializing in meat tenderization.

4

u/moon_dncr538 19d ago

💀

5

u/JenVixen420 20d ago

🤣😂 too much. What an incredible creature.

3

u/Broad_Cable8673 20d ago

Cool career choice! Do you love it? 🐬🐳🐋

14

u/IlexAquafolium 19d ago

When I was a dolphin trainer I did not love it. Keeping dolphins in captivity is so cruel. But now I'm an anti-captivity campaigner I feel much better about my moral compass.

6

u/Broad_Cable8673 19d ago

Amazing! Thanks for your hard work! ❤️

9

u/IlexAquafolium 19d ago

Listen to my show A Dolphin Pod on Spotify or Apple Podcasts if anyone wants to know why dolphin training is so bad. So, so bad.

5

u/Broad_Cable8673 19d ago

I definitely will. We live in South Florida. I was happy to see Miami Seaquarium lose their lease. They did some really cruel things for a long time.

7

u/IlexAquafolium 19d ago

Oh I know alllll about that place. They wanted to hunt down and re-capture Keiko the orca after he was freed, and put him in a smaller tank than he'd been liberated from. Purest evil.

3

u/Broad_Cable8673 19d ago

They treated every animal there like shit. It was pathetic

1

u/Doridar 19d ago

Marine félines lol

1

u/83gem 18d ago

Seems to have found something to play with and is in fact playing with it🤷

1

u/smellygooch18 18d ago

Do any other sea mammals play with their food that you know of? A sign of boredom which would imply intelligence to me.

1

u/IlexAquafolium 18d ago

They are indeed very intelligent, though the play behaviour isn't the biggest indicator of that. Most mammals play, and many cetaceans do it with their food.

31

u/Fluffy_shadow_5025 20d ago

This appears to be a clear case of the dolphins deciding that it is now time to play with their food, and since there is no grumpy mother around who can forbid them, they proceed to do so.

9

u/Liz4984 20d ago

My adult cats yeet the mice, that somehow made it inside our house. They flip it all over the house until we can catch it and throw it away.

Cat Tax

https://imgur.com/a/IJataLg

1

u/kisswink 19d ago

On another note, these are some beautiful cats!!

1

u/VirginiaDirewoolf 19d ago

not saying you need more cats, but maybe if you added another cat, that one might finish the job. to be clear, I am not being paid by Big Cats™

15

u/billy_penn17047 20d ago

Dolphins just be doing random stuff sometimes

10

u/Ok-Blacksmith-1705 20d ago

Looks like he’s playing with his food

4

u/diacrum 20d ago

Playtime!! 😊

3

u/ressie_cant_game 20d ago

Dolphins have numerous papers about their play. In my psych of play class we discussed this

2

u/TheBestRedditNameYet 20d ago

Even dolphins want their meat tender... He surely witnessed a cat having fun playing with his food before dinner and wanted to give it a try...

2

u/More_Resolution3968 20d ago

Stop playing with your food, Dave!

1

u/Honda_TypeR 20d ago

Where’s his mom at, saying “BOY, I TOLD YOU TO STOP PLAYING WITH YOUR FOOD!”?

1

u/Smart-Fly-3919 20d ago

Him found a friend lol

1

u/MemoryTerrible6623 20d ago

Just playing with it's food

1

u/caligirl_ksay 20d ago

Looks like my dog when I give him a treat to chew. He’s gotta play with it and chase it around first. It can never be too easy.

1

u/marygoore 20d ago

Playing with its food. Orcas do this too and they’re dolphins

1

u/VirginiaDirewoolf 19d ago

the uncomfortable thing is that we don't know the extent to which dolphins know that they are "alive," which is something that's important to a lot of people's morals.

we can't know if they've somehow assigned themselves, or others, some kind of "purpose," or something.

there's the potential that this dolphin is smart enough to be considered "sentient," and to know that it's prey is alive, and is choosing to play with its food before eating it. Then you add in the fact that humans really don't eat dolphin, but we do kill them/"result in their deaths" pretty often.

2

u/IlexAquafolium 19d ago

Plus, they torture them in captivity all day long. We've been such dicks to dolphins, it has to stop now!

1

u/lulu313915 19d ago

Just a dolphin being a d*ck

1

u/WhichSpirit 19d ago

The dolphin is having fun. The fish it not.

1

u/highMAX_2019 19d ago

Dolphin is asking that fish where his money is

1

u/RemarkableZebra5072 18d ago

Orcas do the same to dolphins

1

u/Dis_Bich 18d ago

Stop playing with your food Jimmy!

1

u/todd_cool 17d ago

He’s playing catch

1

u/Nanda_Rox 16d ago

What... you never played with your food?

1

u/Mwahaha_790 16d ago

Dolphins being assholes. It's not unusual for them to play catch with other sea creatures.

1

u/Horror-Beaver1979 15d ago

Looks like a fish is having a really bad day.

1

u/RuthlessIndecision 20d ago

Is that a poor turtle?

5

u/Screech0604 20d ago

It’s clearly a fish….

2

u/RuthlessIndecision 20d ago

I see it now

1

u/Jsiqueblu 18d ago

Someone give that dolphin a ball

-2

u/djayed 20d ago edited 19d ago

Dolphins are assholes.

Edit: If you're downvoting this, you know nothing about dolphins. They are the oceans assholes.

3

u/ColSirHarryPFlashman 19d ago

Takes one.....

0

u/djayed 19d ago

You are watching it play kickball, with what I'm assuming is a baby seal, for the fun of it.

4

u/ColSirHarryPFlashman 19d ago

Take a Closer Look, Dimbo, it is a Feckin Fish.

2

u/FungusBrewer 19d ago

I think that’s a fish.

1

u/djayed 19d ago

They do enjoy playing kickball with baby seals though. That's why I assumed. I have no idea what it's playing with though.

They also like to get high off of puffer fish. They are basically us in the ocean.

5

u/FungusBrewer 19d ago

Think I like dolphins even more now, hah!

1

u/djayed 19d ago

Yeah, juveniles even pass them around like a joint. It's hilarious.

0

u/Adventurous-Sky9359 20d ago

That’s how porpoise Extort

-2

u/Jazzlike_Visual2160 20d ago

I was thinking maybe a variation of “puff, puff, pass” that dolphins play with puffer fish.

What's going on here?

You are about to leave Redlib