An adolescent group of dolphins was caught on camera throwing around a puffer fish off the coast of South Africa. The gang of dolphins threw around the poisonous fish and even chewed on its skin to “get high”, according to the MailOnline.
Reportedly, bottlenose dolphins have recently started taking part in the activity after discovering the effect of the venom.
Apparently the two mischievous dolphins were turfed out of their families by the females for being “too unruly”.
When male dolphins are reach two years old, they form gangs that travel the sea to look for trouble and interact with other marine life.
The footage was filmed for the BBC’s Spy In The Wild.
The terrifying moment group of raging dolphins terrorised a pufferfish to "get high"
A robotic spy fish full of cameras are sent into a gang of adolescent dolphins to film their activity.
The dolphins played with both a turtle and a puffer fish.
However, due to the dolphins’ aggression, the cameras ended up being pushed around and thrown off course.
When the puffer fish arrives, they begin throwing it around above the surface.
Then the dolphins begin holding it in their mouths, being careful not to swallow the fish.
By holding it in their mouths they can swallow the venom without killing the puffer fish.
Puffer fish have a powerful toxin called tetrodotoxin which is poisonous to humans.
But to dolphins, the effect is similar to that of a narcotic drug.
The dolphins begin to swim around more creatively as they each hold there puffer fish in their mouths.
Once the dolphins release the puffer fish, it continues to swim away unharmed.
Dolphins also give each other names in order to keep track of their friends and social networks.
Bottlenose dolphins chat to each other using “individual vocal labels” and form long-term “cooperative alliances”, researchers found.
The 30-year study of male dolphins set out to understand the role of vocal communication in their social behaviour.
A team from the University of Western Australia recorded dolphin sounds using underwater microphones.
Analysis showed that dolphins in an alliance create vocal labels that are quite different from one another – which suggests they are names.
Doctor Stephanie King, who led the research, said: “We found that male bottlenose dolphins form long-term cooperative partnerships.
“These alliances retain individual vocal labels, or “names”, which help males keep track of their many different relationships: who are their friends, who are their friend’s friends, and who are their competitors.”
The findings are in contrast to many other species, where animals use similar noises to communicate that they are in a particular group.