Be sure to reach the end of this article to see the full video!

Most people know that dolphins are incredibly advanced and intelligent animals. But this technique must be seen to be believed.

Did you know that dolphins have the second largest brain to body ratio of any lifeform on Earth? The only creatures with larger brains, compared to their bodies, than dolphins are humans.

Dolphins are so clever that biologists are frequently shocked at the things that they can learn.

For instance, one group of dolphins has been observed to create mud rings on the sea bed for an ingenious reason.

Luckily, there’s a video that captures this activity, and it’s sure to give anyone a whole new appreciation of dolphins.

In the video, a pod of dolphins (yes, a pod is the name for a group of dolphins) are roaming the waters, searching for prey.

They spot a school of fish up ahead. But instead of diving right after the fish, the dolphins do something else.

One of the dolphins splits off from the pod and starts beating her tail on the sea bed, stirring up mud from the ground. She does this in a circular motion, capturing the school of fish in a wall of mud.

It may not look like a human fishing net, but for all intents and purposes, that’s exactly what this mud wall is.

The other dolphins join in, making smaller and smaller mud nets, cutting off any hope of escape for the fish. Pretty soon, the fish are so compact that there’s only one way to go, and that’s out of the water.

So they dive into the air, and the dolphins stick their heads out of the water. The dolphins barely have to move as the fish literally fly into their open mouths.

It’s truly an amazing hunting technique, or a terrifying one if you’re a fish!

The dolphins in this video aren’t going hungry any time soon, because, like humans, they’ve learned a clever way to get their food.

This footage made its way onto YouTube, where it became a viral hit. To date, it has managed to gain over 3.3 million views. It also has more than 12,000 likes and 700 comments.

People have been saying this:

Bottlenose dolphins are the kind of dolphin that employs mud net hunting. And while bottlenose dolphins are the most common kind of dolphin, they have only been observed hunting in this way in one location.

These mud net hunting dolphins live off of the coast of Florida, meaning that any American who wants to see the phenomenon in person is in luck, as it’s relatively easy to get to!

No one knows how long dolphins have been hunting in this manner, but it’s possible that they only learned it very recently. Biologists first observed dolphins participating in mud net hunting in the year 1999.

There are a number of other advanced behaviors that bottlenose dolphins have been known to perform. For instance, some use tools such as sponges to extract food from otherwise inaccessible locations.

Next time you encounter a problem and you don’t know an easy way out, just stop and ask yourself what would a dolphin do?

There must be a way to mud fish net your way out of whatever you’re facing!

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Source: BBC Earth