Rare footage captures orca throwing dolphin high into the air as it teaches its calf to hunt

A whale-watching expedition off the coast of San Diego captured rare video this week of a killer whale teaching its calf how to hunt by headbutting a dolphin, causing it to flip several times in the air.

Wildlife filmmaker Domenic Biagini, who shot the footage, said: ‘The orca caught the dolphin but let it go after it was subdued because it was no longer so Fast and then they brought the calf over and tried to catch it themselves.” “Seeing that level of communication and understanding was like watching a family.”

Biagini founded Gone Whale Watching, one of several companies that saw six killer whales off the coast of San Diego on Monday. He said the hunt lasted about 30 minutes, much longer than a normal orca hunt because they were teaching the calves.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a marine biologist and co-founder of the California Orca Project, said that as one of the ocean’s top predators, killer whales are known for their sheer size and speed. They are known to incorporate it into their hunting strategies. They often slow down their prey to demonstrate the hunting process to their young.

“Orcas can easily travel up to 25 miles per hour,” Schulman-Janig said. “Punch a hole in the side of a dolphin and hit it so hard that it jumps very high out of the water, and the force generated is enormous.”

The orca in the film is so young that its eyepatch is yellow instead of white, a color that will eventually disappear as the orca ages, Schulman-Janig said.

Where do whales come from?

Schulman-Janig said the whale Biagini shot was an eastern tropical Pacific orca, which usually inhabits the waters of Mexico and Central America. They are rarely seen in the relatively warm, calm waters of Southern California.

Shulman-Janig said the large population of dolphins in the area may not be used to killer whales hunting them.

“We try to explain to our guests that while whale behavior toward dolphins can sometimes get very scary, it’s normal and healthy,” Biagini said. “It means our ecosystem is functioning the way it should. .”

Nonetheless, Biagini said he often cut out overly gory portions of footage to avoid overplaying the violence of the hunt.

‘Think of our Thanksgiving feast’: Orca celebrates hunt

Biagini said after the hunt ended on Monday, the orcas began approaching the boats and sticking their heads out of the water to see what was going on, a behavior known as “spy jumping.”

Biagini said after a successful hunt, orcas display more social behavior as they celebrate and often move back and forth in the water.

“Think of us after Thanksgiving dinner, feeling good and laughing. This is what killer whales look like after a hunt,” Biagini said.

Interactions between orcas and human vessels have increased since 2020, but there have been no reports of deaths or injuries. This prompted the term “orca wars,” which describes fictional battles between humans and killer whales, to start trending on social media.

The dangers of whale watching crowds

Biagini said during Monday’s orca sighting, there were 12 to 15 boats in the water around the pod, all trying to capture the rare sighting.

Shulman-Janig said too many boats and inexperienced operators surrounding a pod of orcas could impede their hunting behavior or potentially hit them.

The Marine Mammal Conservation Guidelines issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stipulate that vessels should try to stay at least 100 yards, or the length of a football field, from killer whales.

Biagini has said he was so concerned that the killer whales would be trapped by a large number of ships that he went on the radio to warn others to stay away from the ocean.

In one of the videos he shot, a man driving a boat alone gave up the wheel and leaned over the deck to film the video.

Biagini said it’s often frustrating to see people getting too close to an orca to take social media videos because he knows many viewers won’t stop to question how it was captured.

“As much as I want to photograph them, the most important part is photographing them in the most ethical way possible. We focus on trying to be stewards of the animals,” Biagini said.