Despite being highly intelligent creatures, dolphins can sometimes bite off more than they can chew.

That was the case for Gilligan, a Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin who was found dead on Stratham Beach near the port city of Bunbury in Western Australia.

A hungry Gilligan had attempted to swallow the 2.1 kg Maori octopus whole.

But its dinner proved to be deadly when the octopus' tentacles blocked its airways, a post mortem found.

Scroll down for video

Despite being highly intelligent creatures, dolphins can sometimes bite off more than they can chew. That was the case for Gilligan, a Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin who was found dead on Stratham Beach near the port city of Bunbury in Western Australia

SHAKE AND TOSS Normally dolphins try to break their prey into smaller pieces first using a 'shake-and-toss' method. They bite off the head first then they shake and toss the rest of the body to break it into smaller pieces. The technique also prevents octopus tentacles from latching on to dolphins. Advertisement

Maori octopus are the largest species of octopus found in Australian waters.

The post mortem discovered one octopus tentacle down the dolphin's oesophagus.

A further seven were stuck in the back of its throat.

Tentacle suckers were stuck to the throat walls and had blocked off its airway, researchers said, causing the dolphin to suffocate.

Normally dolphins try to break their prey into smaller pieces first using a 'shake-and-toss' method.

They bite off the head first then they shake and toss the rest of the body.

The technique also prevents octopus tentacles from latching on to dolphins.

A hungry Gilligan had attempted to swallow the 2.1 kg Maori octopus whole. But its dinner proved to be deadly when the octopus' tentacles blocked its airways, a post mortem found

Nahiid Stephens at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia, told New Scientist: 'We assume it simply wasn't broken up adequately.'

The death took places in 2015, but a new study about the post mortem has just been published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

It follows footage released last month of bottlenose dolphin tossing about a lethal octopus into the waters of Western Australia - as it prepared the eight-legged creature to be dinner.

A team of researchers from Murdoch University shared the video while investigating techniques the dolphin uses to catch and eat deadly prey, 9News reports.

Last month, a bottlenose dolphin was captured on video tossing about a lethal octopus

The sea creature was filmed tossing its lethal eight-legged dinner

'By tossing the octopus across the water, dolphins avoid letting the octopus latch onto their bodies,' researchers say

'A large octopus can be risky prey for predators to tackle.

'This is especially so for marine mammals, such as dolphins, which don't have hands to help them keep control of this clingy, eight-armed prey,' wrote research associates Kate Sprogis and David Hocking of Murdoch university.

The video shows the dolphin shaking the octopus in its mouth before violently tossing it onto the water's surface.

Researchers say this is to kill and tear apart the eight-legged critter to more manageable mouthfuls.

'By tossing the octopus across the water, dolphins avoid letting the octopus latch onto their bodies,' the researchers said.

'It's quite a process the dolphins have developed to deal with the octopus. They have a short, fused neck which means they have to arch their whole body to toss their prey out of the water.'