A wild dolphin has been observed following a specific recipe for preparing a mollusk meal, even stripping the animal of its internal shell and beating it free of ink, a new study says.

The female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin was seen repeatedly catching, killing, and preparing giant cuttlefish, which are relatives of octopuses and squid.

The creatures spawn in huge numbers in South Australia's Upper Spencer Gulf.

"It's an example of quite sophisticated behavior," said study co-author Tom Tregenza, a research fellow at the University of Exeter.

Despite their lack of limbs, dolphins have developed clever ways to use their snouts, Tregenza noted.

"A dolphin is like a genius trapped in the body of a fish."

In 2003 and 2007, the