There were two situations recently which cast possibly different light on our view of dolphins. One on the Moray Firth in Scotland and the other on the US East Coast. In Scotland the bodies of Harbour Porpoises were being found dead (with seemingly no external injuries) and in the US, similar case but of small Bottlenose Dolphins.

All the bodies had massive internal injuries and lots of theories were looked at to account for this. Eventually the Scottish side started looking more closely at the (less number) of bodies, also wahed-up that did have enternal injuries and found that they also had the identical internal injuries, seen in the unmarked bodies.

When they matched up the scars with known predators - there was a surprising but unquestionble result. The damage was due to Bottlenose Dolphins! Who were responsible for these attacks, but not for food.

Then video evidence was seen from the Moray Firth showing these (smaller) Harbour Porpoises being chased and tossed out of the water by Bottlenose Dolphins. Sinilar footage was also more closely studied in the US and what was thought to be 'playful' behavour involving younger animals being tossed out of the water - was established to be adults attacking young of the same species.