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 ...

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 ...

One dolphin swam past, her nose oddly enlarged. On a closer look, the bulb was a marine sponge — wedged tightly onto her beak like a soft, fleshy glove. She was not playing. She was hunting. Off the ...