{"id":616877,"date":"2026-06-02T11:04:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/616877\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T11:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T11:04:23","slug":"orca-pod-filmed-hunting-dolphins-near-oban-in-rare-scottish-sighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/616877\/","title":{"rendered":"Orca pod filmed hunting dolphins near Oban in rare Scottish sighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Drone footage shared on social media by Hebrides Cruises<\/a> shows two of the predators pulling apart the dolphin, as the group claimed that they were “unaware of any records” showing orcas outwith the Hebrides<\/a> in inshore waters.\n<\/p>\n

\n The pod also had a small orca calf in tow, and the footage has been deemed “invaluable for conservation and identification”, as the cruise operator’s focus is now on working with marine researchers.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n Read More:\n<\/p>\n

\n Posting the earlier footage of the pod of five orca, Hebrides Cruises said: “We are still in absolute shock. In all our years on the water, we have never witnessed anything like this.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Around 4pm, we got a message from our head guide, Lynsey Bland, heading home, who had just spotted a pod of Orca off a Calmac ferry as it was passing Lady Rock.\n<\/p>\n

\n “Just 30 minutes from our departure port near Oban, we encountered a pod of 5 orcas. We watched in awe as they hunted common dolphins at incredible speeds, eventually making a successful catch right before our eyes, while continuing the chase. Nature<\/a> in its rawest, most powerful form.”\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n On Friday, we reported that more than 30 orcas had been spotted<\/a> swimming past the north of Scotland during the previous week.\n<\/p>\n

\n Volunteers taking part in the Sea Watch Foundation\u2019s annual Orca Watch spotted the marine mammals in the waters around Caithness.\n<\/p>\n

\n Orcas, also known as Killer Whales, are infrequent visitors to Scottish waters, but their appearance has led to some close encounters<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n People taking part are given training in how to spot the whale species<\/a> and other marine mammals, and this year they recorded 35 sightings.\n<\/p>\n

\n All confirmed \u2018killer whale\u2019 sightings are recorded in the Foundation\u2019s online database.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drone footage shared on social media by Hebrides Cruises shows two of the predators pulling apart the dolphin,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-616877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}