Are orcas attacking fin whales? Biologists Robert Pitman and Alisa Schulman-Janiger share insights into the unique hunting behavior of killer whales.
In 2019, a fin whale beached itself along the Gulf of California in Mexico. The gigantic creature was so frightened by the team of orcas trying to take it down that it ran itself into the ground on the beach and later died.
As numbers of large whales plummeted, killer whales may have preyed on other things like dolphins in order to survive. As whale watching becomes more prevalent and people are able to observe them in their habitat, we’re also more likely to witness attacks. We have better cameras and drones that show us a side of killer whales that we might not have seen before.
They’ve even tried to chase down blue whales, though it’s much harder to bring them down because whileStill, killer whales are agile hunters, says Pitman. “Pretty much anything that’s large and swims in the ocean has been shown to be prey of killer whales.” Keep in mind that different types of killer whales hunt different types of food. Some focus on fish, others on seals, and others on dolphins and whales.
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