This video shows killer whales using a rare hunting technique to capture their prey

A video showing killer whales attacking a seal aired in the UK on Sunday. This footage is part of the new BBC documentary titled Frozen Planet II. These images show four killer whales attacking a Weddell seal in the icy waters of Antarctica. Orcs used a rare hunting technique to trap and kill the seal.

The orca is a species of large marine mammal of the toothed cetacean suborder, family Delphinidae. She is intelligent and organizes herself in groups in a surprising way. It hunts its prey using strategies adapted to the environment as well as the prey. Nicknamed “whale killer”it is one of the largest super-predators in the ocean.

A strategy that only a hundred orcs use

During this attack, the seal was on a platform of ice floating on the water. Orcas first swam side by side, creating a wave. This wave reduced the seal’s pack ice, making it vulnerable. The predators then spawned another wave. This made the seal fall into the water.

Once the seal was in the water, it was easy for the killer whales to attack it. They then used another innovative hunting technique which consists of blow bubbles to disorient the sealfacilitating its capture.

Naturalist Sir David Attenborough reports in the documentary that there is only one hundred orcas using this hunting technique coordinated and sophisticated. This technique is called “Crushing Waves”.

Predators capable of hunting animals larger than themselves

Orcs are fearsome, their attacks are targeted and very precise. In fact, a recent report explains that they can tear out the internal organs of great white sharks, such as the liver, with surgical precision. According to what an expert told Insider, This capability is achievable through their echolocation. This method allows them to locate the fattest organs of their prey.

Rare footage released earlier this year shows orcas assaulting and finishing at least two blue whales, the largest animals on the planet. They were filmed swimming in the mouths of blue whales in order to tear out their tongues. This proves that they stop at nothing and are not afraid to hunt animals larger than themselves.

SOURCE: SCIENCEALERT