A school of bigeye scad moves above a coral reef. A dolphin appears nearby. But it does not try to catch a fish, nor does it join the hunt.
It carefully surveys the school, selects a single scad and begins the chase. Sharp turns, acceleration, series of clicks — and at some point the frightened fish regurgitates its recently swallowed prey. This is exactly what the dolphin was waiting for: it instantly snaps up another's lunch, and the scad swims away.
This is how Bubbles hunts — an adult male bottlenose dolphin living off Lady Elliot Island in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef.
Scientists observed him for several years and came to an astonishing conclusion: what we are likely seeing is not a chance find of food, but an individual strategy that the dolphin has mastered and regularly repeats.
One dolphin — a special strategy
13 September 2026 in the peer-reviewed journal Ecology and Evolution a paper was published Repeated Observations Suggesting Kleptoparasitism by a Common Bottlenose Dolphin on the Great Barrier Reef.
The study was conducted by an international team with the participation of specialists from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, the International University of Florida, Southern Cross University and other organizations.
The scientists collected video recordings of encounters with Bubbles made during dives off Lady Elliot Island from 2021 to 2025.
In total, the researchers described 20 foraging episodes. In 11 cases the chase ended with the scad regurgitating its recently swallowed prey, and Bubbles ate it. In the remaining episodes, the sequence did not lead to a recorded feeding.
Each time it was the same dolphin. The scientists recognized him by the nicks on his dorsal fin and the characteristic V-shaped scar on his right side. Staff at the local eco-resort have been observing this male since at least 2017.
On some days Bubbles could repeat the sequence up to ten times within half an hour:
- slowly survey the school;
- select a particular fish;
- begin a directed chase;
- wait for the scad to empty the contents of its stomach;
- eat the ejected prey;
- return to the school and start all over again.
Notably, Bubbles did not eat the scads themselves. He was interested only in what they had managed to catch.
Hunting Another's Hunt
This behaviour is called kleptoparasitism — obtaining food that another animal has caught.
This strategy is well known in the animal world, especially among seabirds. Frigatebirds and skuas pursue other birds, forcing them to drop or regurgitate their prey. Some fish, insects and terrestrial predators also steal food from their neighbours or competitors.
In cetaceans, such behaviour had hardly been documented. The authors of the new paper consider the observations of Bubbles to be the first direct video evidence of kleptoparasitism in a member of this group.
However, it is important here to preserve scientific accuracy. The study concerns a single animal. It is not yet known whether this strategy occurs in other dolphins and whether Bubbles can pass his skill on to others of his kind.
Perhaps he found on his own an unusual way of obtaining food, by hunting not a small, fast fish, but a larger predator that had already done the main work.
How Bubbles chooses a fish
Before the chase, the dolphin moved his head from side to side and produced echolocation clicks. Then his attention focused on a single scad. After rising to the surface for air, Bubbles, according to the researchers' observations, could continue pursuing the same target.
The scientists suggest that with the help of echolocation the dolphin assesses the fish in the school. But whether he is actually able to determine which of them has a full stomach has not been proven.
It is also unclear whether Bubbles understands the causal connection between the chase and the scad's defensive reaction in the way a human would describe it. The observations show a consistent sequence of actions, but they do not allow the animal's intention to be established directly.
Nevertheless, the repeated use of a single strategy over several years suggests that we are not dealing with an isolated coincidence.
Bubbles, it seems, knows what to expect.
The Soundtrack of the Chase
What makes this story especially interesting for understanding this behaviour is sound.
In one high-quality recording lasting 75 seconds the researchers registered 200 vocalisations of the dolphin. Their total duration was almost 33 seconds.
Most — 182 of the signal — were short low-frequency tonal sounds. They occurred in series during the pursuit and ceased after the scad regurgitated its food. Between these series, echolocation clicks sounded.
The authors cautiously suggest that the intense repeated signals may further increase the fish's stress. But this is still a hypothesis. The recording confirms that the sounds coincide with the chase, but it does not prove that they are what triggers the scad's defensive reaction.
The clicks probably help the dolphin orient itself, survey the school and track the rapidly changing direction of the target's movement. The role of the low-frequency signals has yet to be determined.
The result is an unusual underwater scene: the dolphin does not merely pursue its prey — it surrounds the chase with its own acoustic pattern.
A Personality Beneath the Surface
We often speak of animal behaviour at the level of the species: “dolphins hunt,” “whales migrate,” “octopuses hide.” But within every species there are individual personalities with their own experience, preferences and solutions they have found.
Some dolphins use sea sponges, protecting their snouts with them while searching for food on the bottom. Others stir up silt, creating ring-shaped traps for fish. Some cooperate with fishermen or throw themselves onto the shore after their prey, precisely calculating the moment the wave returns.
Bubbles adds his own technique to this list.
It is not yet known whether he invented it himself, learned it from another animal, or gradually consolidated it after a chance successful episode. But his story shows how behavioural diversity arises not only between species, but also between individual beings.
Evolution gives an animal a body and a set of capabilities. Life experience helps turn them into an individual art.
What did the ocean remind us of?
About the fact that intelligence manifests itself not only in solving problems posed by humans.
It can reveal itself in the precision of movement, in the ability to notice a hidden opportunity, to remember the result and for years to repeat the sequence it has found.
The scad hunts small fish. The dolphin watches the scad. The scientist watches the dolphin. Each follows its own nature, but together their actions form a single living system.
Bubbles did not change the laws of the ocean. He heard its connections, found the free space between them and created his own way of living.
Perhaps this is exactly how the new is born: one day someone notices an opportunity where others saw only the familiar course of events.
