Dear MARMAM colleagues, My co-authors and I are pleased to announce the publication of our note in Marine Mammal Science: Sprogis, K.R., Raudino, H.C., Hocking, D., and Bejder, L. (2017). Complex prey handling of octopus by bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus). Marine Mammal Science, doi: 10.1111/mms.12405. Link to paper: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.12405/full Blog: http://mucru.org/complex-prey-handling-of-octopus-by-bottlenose-dolphins/ In summary: Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins were observed handling octopus on 45 occasions in southwest Australia from 2007 to 2013. We suggest that dolphins shake octopus onto the water’s surface and toss octopus several meters into the air multiple times to i) remove the octopus head/mantle, ii) tenderise and ensure the arms are inactive and iii) break the octopus into smaller pieces for easier consumption. We documented that octopus handling i) was a seasonal occurrence, peaking during winter/spring in water temperatures ~18°C, ii) occurred in relatively turbid (~3m) and shallow (~9m) waters, iii) occurred primarily over benthic habitat consisting of sand, algae/sand and mud/silt, iv) occurred in group sizes of ~10 dolphins, v) was most prevalent among adult females and, vi) was conducted by dolphins that showed a close association with other dolphins handling octopus. If you cannot download the publication, please email me to request it. Kind regards, Kate Sprogis PhD Cetacean Research Unit | School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, 90 South St, Murdoch WA 6150, Australia k.sprogis@murdoch.edu.au<mailto:k.sprogis@murdoch.edu.au> | MUCRU Kate Sprogis<http://mucru.org/group-members/kate-sprogis> | Kate Sprogis Photography<https://katesprogisphotography.wordpress.com/> [cid:4F9D4BFF-E7CE-4E16-AA79-DDCD1ECEEE0C]
