Study Suggests Dolphins Use Coral Mucus as Medicine

Researchers observe that dolphins in a pod in the Red Sea regularly rub against certain corals and sponges, perhaps to sooth their skin by prompting the invertebrates to release mucus that contains antimicrobial compounds.

Written byDan Robitzski

| 4 min read

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Two adult bottlenose dolphins and one calf swim close to a sandy seafloor that’s dotted with coral.

Dolphins swim among coral that releases bioactive, potentially therapeutic mucus when agitated.

Image credit:ANGELA ZILTENER

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Chimpanzees have learned to eat plants that kill or remove parasitic worms. Wood ants ward off pathogens by incorporating resin into their nests. Various bird species in Mexico City integrate cigarette butts into their nests to prevent tick infestations. Capuchin monkeys bite millipedes and rub the toxins they produce into their fur, keeping mosquitoes away. The animal kingdom is full of examples of animals that know, either innately or as a result of watching their parents or peers, to use plants and other animals for medicinal purposes. Dolphins may be another such example, according to research published today (May 19) in iScience.

The study makes two key findings: that Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) repeatedly and deliberately rub against specific corals and sea sponges, and that when these invertebrates are agitated, they release mucus containing cocktails of bioactive compounds with antimicrobial, hormonal, and cytotoxic properties. The researchers extrapolate that the ...

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Meet the Author

Dan Robitzski
Dan is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles who joined The Scientist as a reporter and editor in 2021. Ironically, Dan’s undergraduate degree and brief career in neuroscience inspired him to write about research rather than conduct it, culminating in him earning a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University in 2017. In 2018, an Undark feature Dan and colleagues began at NYU on a questionable drug approval decision at the FDA won first place in the student category of the Association of Health Care Journalists' Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. Now, Dan writes and edits stories on all aspects of the life sciences for the online news desk, and he oversees the “The Literature” and “Modus Operandi” sections of the monthly TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. Read more of his work at danrobitzski.com.
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