The film clip below shows a pack of killer whales co-operating to catch a seal. First, they break up the ice floe on which their prey is standing, and push it out into open water. Then, they create large waves to knock the seal into the water.
This kind of behaviour has been observed in killer whales before, and is apparently passed on from one generation to the next.
Read more at Nature News.
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Canada, land of the holier than thou.
Like many 'generalised' carnivores, the Common or Harbour seal Phoca vitulina is a surprisingly adaptable predator, even if it is rather conservative in diet and choice of foraging habitat (e.g., Tollit et al. 1998).
As reported in the May 2008 Journal of Ethology, researchers in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean on Marion Island, recently obser
Everything I have ever seen or heard about killer whales says they are extremely intelligent and do pass a lot of info on from one generation to the next. I also have to admit that they are pretty, but I sure wouldn't want to take a swim with a hungry one! LOL!
Dave Briggs :~)
Wolves of the sea, indeed.