Orcas are very, very smart. It doesn’t pay to be their prey. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Orcas are an apex predator. They hunt in packs, using their wits to outsmart their prey and their speed and strength to overpower it. Though they pose no threat to humans (in the wild, anyway), if you’re on their menu… watch out.
In the video, courtesy of the BBC and narrated by the inimitable David Attenborough, the viewer sees something pretty incredible: a pod of orca practicing a hunting technique that they’ll use on a blue whale. Blue whales, as you know, are the largest mammal on Earth, and hunting even a juvenile one is no small feat.
“Due to their enhanced cognitive abilities, they are frequent predators of other ocean giants, including large sharks,” researchers wrote in a recently-published paper in Frontiers of Marine Science. “Observations of these predator-prey interactions are rare globally; however, records appear to be increasing in recent years, possibly due to increased access to surveillance.”
The orcas, incredibly, have figured out that they can drown their prey if they can force its blowhole underwater for long enough. Using cooperative hunting methods, they practice with each other until they’ve got it down pat, then put it to good use.