据英国新科学家杂志报道，海豚没有餐刀，但是它们却是捕猎屠杀猎物，并将猎物制成美味食物的顶尖高手。近期，澳大利亚研究人员观测到一只雌性宽吻海豚上演了一系列精确的捕猎技巧——杀死猎物，解剖内脏，剔除骨骼。
海豚的6步骤猎杀过程去除了墨鱼体内的墨汁和难以下咽的墨鱼骨。英国埃克塞特大学进化生物学家汤姆·特里根扎(Tom Tregenza)说：“海豚的捕猎行为非常显而易见，并且非常有效，它们懂得如何将猎物变成美味可口的食物。”
澳大利亚墨尔本市维多利亚博物馆海洋生物学家朱利安·费恩(Julian Finn)分别在2003年和2007年观测到一只雌性海豚表演的水下捕猎活动，据悉，当时他正在研究墨鱼的交配行为，在澳大利亚南部海域生活着大量墨鱼。
海豚先将墨鱼从海底的海藻丛中驱赶到海底一个开放区域，接下来它捕捉到墨鱼，用嘴叼着猛烈地撞击海底，为了去除墨鱼体内的墨汁，它用嘴叼着墨鱼尸体反复地在水中摇摆，直到海水冲刷干净墨鱼体内的墨汁。之后，海豚将墨鱼的尸体在海底沙子中碾磨，以分解它的骨骼。特里根扎说：“在这一过程中，你有兴趣的话可以听到墨鱼被碾磨分解时发出的噪音。在我们拍摄的这段视频中，墨鱼骨骼最终像香皂块一样从身体上脱离出来。”最后，海豚才开始享受这顿美味大餐。
虽然费恩仅拍摄到一只海豚的这种奇特捕食行为，但海豚的这种技巧并非是个别现象。特里根扎说：“我猜测如果我们在海底投入更多的时间和精力，将能看到其他的海豚类似的捕食技巧。”
在观测中研究人员意识到一个新的问题——第一只懂得该捕猎方法的海豚是如何形成该技巧的？之前，研究人员曾展示雌性海豚教授自己的孩子在捕食鱼的时候如何用嘴叼着海绵，像挥动着一只盾牌。近期的一项研究显示，雌性小海豚要比雄性小海豚更渴望掌握一些生存技巧。
海豚这种奇特的捕猎技巧应当是海豚群体的普遍现象，特里根扎称，很可能是海豚发明了这种捕猎、制作食物的方法，它们很可能是从母亲或者姐姐那里学习这种技能。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
PLoS ONE 4(1): e4217. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004217
Preparing the Perfect Cuttlefish Meal: Complex Prey Handling by Dolphins
Julian Finn1,2*, Tom Tregenza3, Mark Norman1
1 Sciences, Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 Department of Zoology, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia, 3 Centre for Ecology and Conservation, School of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Tremough, Penryn, United Kingdom
Abstract
Dolphins are well known for their complex social and foraging behaviours. Direct underwater observations of wild dolphin feeding behaviour however are rare. At mass spawning aggregations of giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama) in the Upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia, a wild female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) was observed and recorded repeatedly catching, killing and preparing cuttlefish for consumption using a specific and ordered sequence of behaviours. Cuttlefish were herded to a sand substrate, pinned to the seafloor, killed by downward thrust, raised mid-water and beaten by the dolphin with its snout until the ink was released and drained. The deceased cuttlefish was then returned to the seafloor, inverted and forced along the sand substrate in order to strip the thin dorsal layer of skin off the mantle, thus releasing the buoyant calcareous cuttlebone. This stepped behavioural sequence significantly improves prey quality through 1) removal of the ink (with constituent melanin and tyrosine), and 2) the calcareous cuttlebone. Observations of foraging dolphin pods from above-water at this site (including the surfacing of intact clean cuttlebones) suggest that some or all of this prey handling sequence may be used widely by dolphins in the region. Aspects of the unique mass spawning aggregations of giant cuttlefish in this region of South Australia may have contributed to the evolution of this behaviour through both high abundances of spawning and weakened post-spawning cuttlefish in a small area (>10,000 animals on several kilometres of narrow rocky reef), as well as potential long-term and regular visitation by dolphin pods to this site.
