{"id":254093,"date":"2025-03-07T16:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T16:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/dolphins-and-humans-team-up-to-catch-fish-in-brazil\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T16:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T16:03:14","slug":"dolphins-and-humans-team-up-to-catch-fish-in-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/07\/dolphins-and-humans-team-up-to-catch-fish-in-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins and humans team up to catch fish in Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dolphins<\/div> \r\n
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Many hands make light work. Or, in the case of cooperative interspecies foraging in southern Brazil, flippers and hands catch more fish together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolphins and humans have hunted mullet together<\/a> in Laguna, Brazil, for generations, increasing the catch for both species. Drone-based video shows that the dolphins coordinate with each other<\/a> during these hunts, researchers report February 12 in Current Zoology<\/em>. The analysis also reveals which of the dolphins\u2019 tactics are most likely to result in a successful catch for both mammal species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tandem hunting practiced by Lahille\u2019s bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus gephyreus<\/em>) and local fishermen often yields more bounty for all<\/a>. In the murky estuaries in southern Brazil, the dolphins herd schools of mullet toward the shallows where humans wait for just the right moment to cast their nets, signaled by a dolphin\u2019s tail slap against the water or sudden dive. The dolphins can then pull a few fish from the net to eat or more easily prey on the mullet trapped against the outside of the nets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolphins herd mullet toward fishers casting nets in Laguna, Brazil, which increases the catch for both species.<\/span>Fabio G. Daura-Jorge\/Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a rare interaction between two top predators combining their complementary skills,\u201d says Mauricio Cantor, a behavioral ecologist at Oregon State University\u2019s Marine Mammal Institute in Newport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous research from a 40-year-long monitoring program centered around this joint dolphin-human foraging has shown how the humans cooperate with each other<\/a> to maximize their fish catch. But scientists weren\u2019t sure if the dolphins also cooperated with each other or instead competed for the mullet.<\/p>\n\n\n