A film crew for the BBC documentary series 'Blue Planet III' recorded a peculiar behavior of the Indian bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) inhabiting Shark Bay in Western Australia.
Local individuals of this population exhibit a habit of covering their rostrum with lips approximately five percent of the time, which is observed more frequently in females. They use these lips to search for food on the seabed.
It is believed that the lips serve a protective function, preventing damage to the dolphins' snouts from contact with rocks and shells. Furthermore, they act as a kind of safeguard when colliding with fish that have poisonous spines, such as rays and scorpions.
