{"id":618896,"date":"2026-06-03T12:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/618896\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:53:09","slug":"orca-pod-spotted-hunting-dolphins-off-coast-of-scotland-in-rare-footage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/618896\/","title":{"rendered":"Orca pod spotted hunting dolphins off coast of Scotland in rare footage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rare footage of an orca pod hunting dolphins off the coast of Scotland has been caught on camera.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Hebrides Cruises head guide Lynsey Bland spotted the whales in the water off the coast of Oban whilst travelling on a CalMac ferry at 4pm.<\/p>\n<p>The pod of five orcas, including a young calf, was seen hunting common dolphins near Lady Rock.<\/p>\n<p>The video shows one orca bursting from the waves as it continues the search for food.<\/p>\n<p>Drone images also capture the pod swirling under the water with dolphins swimming nearby.<\/p>\n<p>Rob Barlow, director at Hebrides Cruises, said: \u201cIn all our years operating on the west coast, we have never witnessed anything like this.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWatching five Orca, including a calf, hunting common dolphins in these inshore waters was one of the most remarkable wildlife experiences we have ever had. It was nature in its rawest and most powerful form.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While orcas are regular visitors to the Hebrides by John Coe and Aquarius, the company is not aware of any previous records of a pod outside the West Coast Community group being documented hunting common dolphins in such inshore waters.<\/p>\n<p>Emma Fairbairns, director and shore manager at Hebrides Cruises said: \u201cWe are still on a high from an incredible afternoon. Not only for us but for my six-year-old daughter, who can now say she has witnessed an orca 30 minutes from home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know this kind of behaviour has never been recorded in these inshore waters; research has always indicated the West Coast Community (with only two animals left) was the only Orca that preyed on cetaceans in these waters. It is historical to witness a different pod so close to Oban.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n<p>Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029VaCESJzKgsNvKKNOYO2r\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">      Follow STV News <\/a>Follow STV News on WhatsApp<\/p>\n<p>Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/whatsapp-qr.png\" alt=\"WhatsApp channel QR Code\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rare footage of an orca pod hunting dolphins off the coast of Scotland has been caught on camera.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-618896","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\/618896","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=618896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}