rare event captured by drone camera: Orcas pursue, drown, & feast on a Minke whale

[leashedForLife]

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transient Orcas are hard to see - they are pelagic [open-ocean travelers], so any encounter is accidental.
A Russian research team had an incredibly rare meeting with transient orcas...  who just happened to be hunting a whale...  AND they got video footage of the chase, the drowning, & the meal, courtesy of the drone they just happened to have with them. :blink:   A lot of happy accidents, resulting in a world-first.

https://www.livescience.com/59711-orcas-hunt-minke-whale.html

The white is the Minke's belly - the orcas have pushed the Minke upside-down, & take it in turns to lie on the animal -- to keep the blowhole underwater, & drown her / him.

Transient orcas are also eerily silent, in strong contrast to their chatty cousins who hunt fish - but after the whale was dead & they began to eat, the researchers also used a hydrophone to capture a burst of 'talk' among the orca pod.

 

[leashedForLife]

here's the video -
WARNING:
the music is incredibly loud, with lots of deep throbbing bass & scary intense chords.  I'd turn down the SOUND b4 starting the clip.  
.
 

 

[leashedForLife]

I'm not sure just when this audio clip was recorded - it's labeled "HUNTING Minke whale", but the article said they recorded with the hydrophone after it was killed, so not sure.
 


Related audio-recordings will play automatically after the Orcas-&-Minke  snippet, if U want to continue listening.  

 

[eingana]

Not particularly nice to watch nature being red in tooth and claw if you think that orcas, predatory carnivores that they are, are cuddly and sweet, but an interesting piece of footage none the less.

 

[leashedForLife]

I doubt many Merikans still believe in the myth of peaceful, cuddly orcas after Tillicum killed 3 different trainers, in 2 different Sea-World parks -  orcas, like polar bears, are among the few predators known to have specifically hunted humans as prey.
Great Whites have not 'hunted' humans; bitten, yes - hunted with intent, no.

the resident orcas who hunt fish are a whole different critter from the mammal-hunting orca clans of transients - just as cranky, aggro sun-bears in Asia are different from the mostly-shy black bears of the Eastern U-S, who differ from the grizzlies of the mountain West. Grizz hunt elk calves with speed & intensity; they'll kill a cow or a bison or a horse, especially if the animal is injured or ill.

Culture can differ even within the same species - South Africa had a very intense, aggressive culling program for decades, killing elephants with machine guns from helicopters.  Elephants became highly aggressive, there - charging without provocation, especially bulls, but also matriarchs whose herds had been harassed & family members killed. The survivors were traumatized, but also angry, fearful, & aggressive - what did they have to lose but  their lives?

Kenya's elephants were rarely culled, only problem individuals were killed, & they never became human-hostile in the same way as the S African elephants did after years of culling & aerial chasing.