{"id":344601,"date":"2025-12-14T11:58:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T11:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/344601\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T11:58:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T11:58:13","slug":"rare-footage-shows-dolphins-helping-orcas-hunt-off-b-c-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/344601\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare footage shows dolphins helping orcas hunt off B.C. coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Killer whales are the ocean\u2019s top predator \u2014 but new research suggests they may not always hunt alone.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765485674_689_70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Researchers at the University of British Columbia have captured rare underwater and aerial footage showing northern resident <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/killer-whales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">killer whales<\/a> foraging alongside Pacific white-sided <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/dolphins\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">dolphins<\/a>, revealing an unexpected cooperative relationship between the two species.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image c-video__image--short\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Whales, dolphins spotted teaming up to hunt off BC coast'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/WHALES_AND_DOLPHINS_thumbnail_720x1280_.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t0:49<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhales, dolphins spotted teaming up to hunt off BC coast\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The video was collected off the north coast of Vancouver Island near Johnstone Strait, using drones and suction-cup biologging tags temporarily attached to whales.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The team set out to better understand how northern resident killer whales catch their prey, but instead documented behaviour they were not actively searching for.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765393751_868_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n<p>Get the day&#8217;s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth of it is, we never intended to look at this interaction at all,\u201d said Andrew Trites, director of UBC\u2019s Marine Mammal Research Unit, in an interview with Global News.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers first noticed the unmistakable vocalizations of both killer whales and Pacific white-sided dolphins on the recordings. When they matched the sounds with the video, they observed the two predators moving together while foraging.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we are seeing is the dolphins are taking the lead,\u201d Trites said. \u201cThe whales were turning towards them, and then following them down to depth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The footage suggests the dolphins use echolocation to locate fish, while the killer whales fall silent, apparently eavesdropping. Once prey is found, the whales move in to capture it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a result, they find the fish. The killer whale goes in and at one point we hear this \u2018crunch\u2019 sound, which tells us that the killer whale has made a successful kill,\u201d Trites said.<\/p>\n<p>The cooperation appears to benefit both species. As killer whales surface to process and eat their catch, fragments of fish escape into the water, where dolphins are seen feeding.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11576710\/bc-communities-high-risk-flooding-atmospheric-river\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765713492_405_flood-bc.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Really challenging issue\u2019: Many B.C. communities still at high risk for flooding\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11576745\/wea-prairies-cold\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765713492_769_d1e8e7f538dfbe8e3914e59167960c21b7c18a40dcfe946b7e4cdd0c3042bdde.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tCold warnings across the Prairies forecast wind-chill temperatures near -45 C\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the whales are processing their fish, so when they are eating it at the surface, you see all of the bits of fish that escape the whale\u2019s mouth,\u201d said Sarah Fortune, chair of the Canadian Wildlife Federation. \u201cAnd the dolphins are there likely grabbing those fragments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Researchers say the behaviour may help explain why northern resident killer whales tend to fare better than their southern resident counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe resident killer whales might have a bit more of an adaptable behaviour, and the ability to coordinate their feeding strategies with other cetaceans,\u201d Fortune said.<\/p>\n<p>The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, document 258 unique events of dolphins travelling near the heads of tagged killer whales.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be the first people in the world to see this \u2014 it was just an unforgettable moment,\u201d Trites said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: '90 surviving false killer whales on Tasmania beach to be euthanized after mass stranding'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/whales_web.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:12<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t90 surviving false killer whales on Tasmania beach to be euthanized after mass stranding\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n<p>\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Killer whales are the ocean\u2019s top predator \u2014 but new research suggests they may not always hunt alone.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,10390,295,82166,66,323],"class_list":["post-344601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dolphins","tag-environment","tag-killer-whales","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}