Bottlenose dolphins appear to seek out certain corals and sponges that produce compounds with antibacterial or hormone-like properties
Dolphins may be treating their own wounds and infections by rubbing themselves against corals and sea sponges that have antibacterial properties.
Many marine mammals, such as orcas and beluga whales, rub their bodies against underwater materials like sand, pebbles or limestone, perhaps to help shed the outer layers of their skin in the summer. But similar behaviour has been less well studied in dolphins. at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and her colleagues filmed Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in the Red Sea off Egypt queueing up to rub against specific corals and sea sponges.
They noticed that the dolphins would repeatedly rub certain body parts on the corals and sponges and that some of the corals released mucus as the dolphins swam past, so they suspected the animals might be self-medicating.“They always come back to the same organism and they are really rubbing different body parts on them,” says Ziltener. “It’s not observed in sand or in seagrass, for example; it’s a different behaviour. [They’re] queueing up and waiting for their turn.
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