A rare encounter of a pygmy sperm whale being hunted by a pod of killer whales was recently captured on video for the first time off the Portuguese island of Madeira.
According to Camila Davila Pardo, who works as a marine biologist for a whale and dolphin watching tour company called Blue Safari Madeira, 26 species of whales and dolphins have been documented in the area, “19 of which were recorded as killer whale prey worldwide.”
In a research paper published in Marine Mammal Science, Davila Pardo wrote:
“However, despite this potential prey availability, no information exists about killer whale prey and foraging behavior in Madeira. In general, observations of killer whale predation on marine mammals remain rarely documented in the Northeast Atlantic and to our knowledge, these are the first confirmed records in Madeira, providing new insight into the foraging ecology of killer whales in the region.”
Check out Davila Pardo’s video of the orcas hunting the pygmy sperm whale on Instagram, plus a feature story about the discovery on National Geographic.
(Featured Image: Camila Davila Pardo via National Geographic)
