Dolphin chases fish until they abandon their meal, then steals it!

Instead of catching the fish itself, an Australian dolphin has found a stranger way to obtain its food: chasing plump fish until they regurgitate what they have eaten, then devouring the discarded meal.

Researchers observed this behavior in a bottlenose dolphin known as "Bubbles," which lives near Lady Elliot Island in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Scientists were able to identify the individual based on markings on its body. During monitoring operations conducted between 2021 and 2025, the team documented 20 chases of large-eye trevally fish, and in 11 instances, Bubbles consumed the food regurgitated by the fish as they fled.

According to the Times of India, the researchers describe this trick as a form of "kleptoparasitism," meaning an animal obtaining food that was gathered or caught by another animal. While this strategy may serve as a means of conserving energy, scientists emphasize that this hypothesis has not yet been confirmed.

Observations also indicate that the dolphin produced sounds during the chase, which may have contributed to confusing the fish or prompting them to expel the contents of their stomachs. However, researchers do not yet know whether Bubbles invented this method on its own, learned it from another dolphin, or if this trick is widespread among dolphins in the region.

This new behavior adds another example to the dolphins’ ability to develop flexible and innovative ways of obtaining food.