To capture fish, bottlenose dolphins have many special tricks. They can round them up by disturbing the sediment on the seafloor, creating “mud nets,” or may chase fish toward the shore, trapping their prey before also partially beaching themselves and chowing down.

The cetaceans also have a slightly more brutal tactic: Smacking or flipping fish with their tail flippers, sending them flying into the air. The dolphins then swim over to the stunned fish for an easy bite.

This technique, which has been observed among several types of dolphins in areas as disparate as the U.S. Gulf Coast and New Zealand, has the fancy technical name of “fish-kicking” or “fish-whacking,” explains Stefanie Gazda, a biologist at the University of