First Time In World History, Killer Whales Filmed Hunting Dolphins
Tue, May 6, 2008
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Image from The Herald. Let’s see how long until we get a cease-and-desist.
A tour operator in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, unwittingly stumbled into the history books this weekend when he, his boat captain, and four tourists were in the right place at the right time to make the first recording ever of Orca whales hunting dolphins.
Ranier Schimpf was leading a group of divers when they noticed that one dolphin had been separated from a pod by five of the killer whales then repeatedly rammed. The dolphin was sent flying through the air by the force of impact from whales that were several times its size. With the smaller creature finally left laying unconscious on the surface, the whales pulled it below.
The two 7m male, two 5m female, and a 3m calf whales were clearly working as a team against the dolphin, and it appeared it was also a hunting lesson for the calf. More than that, they exhibited very protective behavior after the hunt. Becoming aware of the boat, they slowed, and began to circle the craft, investigating it. At that point the divers, making a decision I’ll only characterize as daring here, got into the water with the whales and kept filming them. This paid off, however. The whales, recognizing the humans as non-threatening, began to interact in a friendly way. The mother even presented the calf to one of the tourists, shielding it carefully, but allowing it to take a look at the strange visitors.
Capturing the hunting process of orcas, and their behavior immediately after, gives man access to a previously un-captured behavior that’s key to understanding the group dynamics within the pod. Conservation efforts are traditionally most successful when animals are the most thoroughly understood, and we are now, thanks to a group of tourists that were in the right place at the right time, a great leap closer to understanding both the hunting and social behaviors of killer whales.
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“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else.”
May 7th, 2008 at 5:22 am
Nature can be brutal at times. I feel for the poor dolphin, but I suppose orcas have to eat too.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
check out Hayden Panettiere selling poached whale smoothies:
http://www.derober.com/2008/01/28/hayden-likes-her-whales-like-she-likes-her-coffee/
May 7th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Is this not a sort of cannibalism? Orcas are in fact dolphins, not whales (as this article seems to suggest… *cough*), so wouldn’t that be a bit strange? It’s fascinating, nonetheless.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Just exactly what type of behavior did you expect from “Killer Whales”?
Perhaps that is how they got such a appropriate name.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Where is the video of this footage?
May 7th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Nice article, but WHERE’S THE FILM!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
May 7th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
A story about a video isn’t a damn story with a video!
May 7th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Yea, and wait till the PETA get a hold of this.. [sarcasm] haha
May 7th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I don’t get it. The Transient killer whales of British Columbia do this all the time. That is what they do. They eat marine mammals, including dolphins, porpoise, seals, and other whales.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Seems like that photo is photoshopped to me
May 7th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Um, the Orca Watch web site for the Pacific Northwest has had pictures where the whales have attacked porpoises.
Try this link:
http://whaleresearch.com/thecenter/Encounters_2008_007.html
May 7th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Why is there an article about this video and NO video?
May 7th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Seems as though this is not the “First Time In World History” after all. (See link posted by Ray). Also, where’s the video mentioned in the headline?
May 7th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
what would stop them from doing something similar to a human?! :)
May 7th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
What kind of Bonehead writes a story about a video and doesn’t even give us a teaser video?
Friggin useless!!
Thanks “Ben”
Get Bent
May 7th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
hate to break it to you, but Orcas, or “Killer Whales”, are not Whales.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
This is false it is not the first time anybody has ever captured Killer whales hunting dolphins on film!! I seen that on a wild life program on UK TV years ago! And have herd of it happening many times.
I cant remember the name of the actual tv program but it had footage of a large killer whale chasing a rather small type of dolphin. In the end the killer whale gave up because the dolphin was just too fast and kept out maneuvering it.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:31 am
@lan
“Is this not a sort of cannibalism? …………….. so wouldn’t that be a bit strange?”
Many animals practice cannibalism
May 8th, 2008 at 6:30 am
no mention of the orcas eating the dolphin, just ramming it and then drowning it. They do this to teach the calf how to hunt.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Chill people here’s the url for the video on YouTube, it wasn’t hard to find.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Killer whales ARE whales, and so are dolphins
May 20th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Killer whales are not whales, and neither are dolphins. It also would not be cannibalism, because Orcas and dolphins (any kind) are not the same species.
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Firstly, in no way at all is this the first time this has ever been recorded. That orca eat other dolphin species has been known for many years and seen in many places, this is not new in any way. To call it cannibalisitc, displays a large level of ignorance about whales and dolphins and animals (including humans) in general. Humans in many parts of the world eat monkies, its a perfect parallel. Orca’s and the many dolphin species are not the same species, they are in the same group (cetacean), just as we are primates.
May 25th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Here is what you all are waitinmg for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-bxOnAOH7I
January 29th, 2009 at 2:46 am
This is why I support the “Nuke the whales” initiative.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Really Amazing! Capturing the hunting process of orcas, and their behavior immediately after, gives man access to a previously un-captured behavior that’s key to understanding the group dynamics within the pod. Conservation efforts are traditionally most successful when animals are the most thoroughly understood, and we are now, thanks to a group of tourists that were in the right place at the right time, a great leap closer to understanding both the hunting and social behaviors of killer whales. Good Post i look forward to reading more!
Sydney
career hunting uk
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:01 am
i am sexy whale are alsome
April 27th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Hello really good site it gave me really good information for my project!!!
Thanks,
~Melissa~
May 6th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
To whom it may concern.
“Killer Whales” referred to above are not in fact whales. They, Orcas, are in fact members of the dolphin family, delphinidae. Is this enviornmental wikipedia?
Please do some homework.
May 13th, 2009 at 12:14 am
this is so wack?!