Killer whales teach their young how to hunt – YouTube
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Amazing new footage has captured the moment adult killer whales carefully teach their calves how to hunt, showing them how to flush a seal off the ice before letting the cubs try hunting on their own.
The video shows a group of seven orcas — four adults and three calves — circling a seal on a small patch of ice in Marguerite Bay, west Antarctica. The hour-long lesson was filmed for the new PBS show Nature: Orca Expedition, which follows a remarkable group of orcas living off the coast of Antarctica.
“The biggest surprise was how carefully and methodically the females kept the seal in the pen near the ice without causing him fatal injuries so that he could get out,” Leigh Hickmott, a whale biologist and scientific adviser to the show who watched the process from a nearby boat, told Live Science in an email.
“This gave the females the opportunity to show the pups several different methods of accessing the seal, all in one lesson,” he added. The hunting techniques they taught the pups included “washing in waves, tipping the ice, blowing bubbles to push the seal out from under the ice, and holding the seal by its hind flippers to avoid being bitten.”
The footage shows a female orca giving a lesson, demonstrating how to pull a seal off the ice by its tail, while the calves watch and learn. She allows the seal to escape, and after it jumps back onto the ice, the calves take turns practicing the technique – a behaviour that is repeated over and over.
Killer whales are highly intelligent predators. They are social, live in family groups, and hunt in packs. They are one of the few species that actively teach their young (and each other) skills, which can lead to new and innovative behaviors.
Adult killer whales swam across the ice, demonstrating how to pull a seal by the tail.
The killer whales captured in the video are known as B1 orcas and are famous for their “wave washing” hunting technique, where a pod works together to create large waves that knock seals off the safety of ice floes and into the water.
The PBS program also features the first recordings of killer whales calling to each other as they search for prey, coordinate hunts and share their catch.
Killer whale calves took turns hunting a seal after being shown how to pull it out of the ice
Sourse: www.livescience.com
