Bottle dolphins are known to use sea sponges as tools when searching for food in the ocean. This behavior is called “sponging.” “Sponging” refers to when these dolphins place a sea sponge on their rostrum (snout area) and use it to collect food. Different explanations have been given as to why bottlenose dolphins adopt this behavior. It has been perceived that young dolphins learn this behavior from their mothers. The researchers are also exploring the possibility that there is differentiation in diving skills between dolphins, caused by variation in mitochondrial gene processing of proteins involved in creating the bottlenose dolphins' respiratory system, and that this variation could have lead them to use sea sponges as foraging tools. In previous studies, "sponge" dolphins appeared to belong to the same ancestor, or female lineage, indicating both practical possibilities. The first study in western Shark Bay tested a coding region of mtDNA genes, and the other, in eastern Shark Bay, tested HVRI, a non-coding section of mtDNA. However, in the latter study, heritability could not explain the rest of the results. This particular study was created to investigate whether specific mitochondrial coding can prove whether or not a dolphin will engage in this sponging behavior, and weather tests coding or not coding sections of mtDNA are better at interpreting the weather depending on whether the dolphin will “mop up” or not. The researchers also wanted to know if these genes were subject to a process of natural selection. Methods The research took place in an area called Shark Bay, located on the west coast of Australia, set on a peninsula. The first step of ...... middle of paper ......ty overall. For example, when dolphins start using the tool, and more about what the process involves, etc. It's a bit like knowing a patient's in-depth medical history in a hospital. This allows us to learn more about the history of sponging in this dolphin community. It would have been nice if the study took into account all other foraging techniques. The article explains that there are many other foraging techniques used by bottle dolphins. If the study included these foraging techniques, it may have shown a clearer picture of the overall use of foraging techniques and perhaps led them to rule out genetics in other ways. Works Cited Bacher, K., Allen, S., Lindholm, A., Bejder, L. and Krutzen, M. (2010). Genes or culture: are mitochondrial genes associated with tool use in bottlenose dolphins (tursiops sp.)?. Behavioral genetics, 40(5), 706-714.