Monkey Mia

The provisioned dolphins (provisioned means hand fed)  as well as their offspring, who also visit the beach, each belong to a family tree: the Crookedfin Lineage, the Holeyfin Lineage, the Surprise Lineage, or the Beautiful Lineage.

Monkey Mia is home to one of the most successful dolphin research programs. Hundreds of dolphins are surveyed and cataloged each year in Shark Bay. Their behavior, ecology, genetics, development, communication, social structure, predators, and prey are all being researched at Monkey Mia, making this one of the most important dolphin research sites worldwide. 

More than 2,000 dolphins inhabit Shark Bay and there are about 200 in the Monkey Mia area. Most mornings between 8am and noon, two adult females (Kiya and her older sister Piccolo), accompanied by their offspring visit the beach to receive fish from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation, and attractions (DBCA) rangers. Visitors to Monkey Mia are able to enter the shallows and assist in the feeding under the supervision of the rangers. 

Shark bay's rich and unique eco system is home to the largest sea grass meadows in the world. It provides habitat and foraging and so is the foundation that drives the eco system. They hunt seagrass dependent fish using their incredible maneuverability by snapping them up on the surface - called "snapping".

Females are the talented hunters displaying a wider variety of hunting behaviours and are more efficient than their male counterparts. Some females hunt using tools (this is the only place this has been known to happen), for example;  wearing a sponge on their beak to protect them from getting scraped and from venomous stings and Hydroplaning to get fish closer to shore. ( as seen in the Puck family)

Calves in Monkey Mia have been known to nurse 3-8 years which is longer than average and male dolphins have been observed to have a buddy, which is unusual amongst mammals  other than in humans, and only seen in Shark Bay.

 In 1999, the classification of the Shark Bay dolphins was changed from bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) to Indian Ocean or Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus).

In 2011 there was an extreme marine heat wave with temperatures 2-4 degrees above normal averages that lasted several months, This devasted the sea grass meadows, of the 4,000 square kilometres, over 1,000 square kilometres and  80% of the dominant species were lost.  As a result the fish that the dolphins feed on were depleted. The Monkey Mia provisioned dolphins appeared initially  to not be affected but 4 years later in 2015 Nicky died along with her calf Mistle and Piccolos calf died also.  In 2017 Piccolo lost another calf which was very unusual and shock died in 2018 at the age 24 which was a much younger age than expected. Puck and Surprise also died in 2019 leaving only Piccolo, Kia in the feeding program. (See  our news section for this story). 

Shark attacks also became more prevalent  after the heat wave as their food supplies were affected. There were 89 recorded attacks on dolphins in the sea grass habitat between 2002 - 2019 and it is thought that some of the dolphin deaths were shark related. Shiver (one of Surprises calves)  suffered a serious shark attack when he was little, and now sports a serious of distinctive shark bites on his peduncle. Despite that he has also been successfully weaned and keeps busy playing with his niece Static, little sister Sonic, and friends Flute and Samu.

For information on the Shark Bay Dolphin Project visit http://www.monkeymiadolphins.org/
For information on Shark Bay World Heritage visithttps://www.sharkbay.org/place/monkey-mia/
For information on the resort for accommodation visit https://parksandresorts.rac.com.au/monkey-mia

Back to location page