Wave Hunting: Orcas Prey on Seal | Antarctica | Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic

For nearly 2 hours, under sunny, calm conditions the guests and crew aboard the National Geographic Explorer watched in awe as a pod of 4 Type-B orcas a.k.a. killer whales use a coordinated wave hunting technique, to displace a crab eater seal from an ice floe. {SPOILER ALERT} But the seal survived 35 separate attempts and made his getaway! Watch the drama unfold.

National Geographic Explorer in Grandidier Channel, Antarctica. Video by Bradford McArthur.



Join the conversation:

[wino]

That seal and 4 orcas were paid for that show.

[vonwaldauer]

I knew orcas extraordinarily smart but I’m impressed with that seal’s escape tactics.

[mechengineer]

The pod was teaching an orca calf the art of the hunt. They were allowing the seal to get back on the ice. @1:46 you can see the calf making the run with the pod, in another run the calf is just swimming randomly. The greater feat of intelligence here is not the coordinated attack, but the schooling of the student orca. The objective was not the seal but educating the juvenile orca. In the final run, the calf failed to join and the pod let the seal escape as a lesson to it.

[tarotanaka]

Imagine being that seal. Clinging onto dear life.

[francessweeney]

If you looked closely, there was at least 1 juvenile amongst the pod. This was not a hunt but the pod training that juvenile how to wave hunt.

[onestate]

Creating a wave in ocean requires immense strength, wow.

[SamSam-jnrw]

Ugh I would have hated being on this boat can’t people just enjoy wildlife without all the yelling

[rominn]

The sound of the cheering hollering crowd is the most irritating thing ever.

If the orcas gave the ice floe a good knock directly from below, it would send the seal flying up into the air and flop, into the water. Lunchtime.

[keithmadden]

That seal needs to spread those strong genes

[tr_g]

This was a practice for the smallest orca. First time to make the wave. Four of them were making the wave but Mother moved her position of "to catch the prey" from the front to the back and swam down. And they let seal live. This formation is always done as Mother at the front( to catch the seal), pray in the middle and 3 making the wave to kill.

[Tengri]

Orcas: *Doing super intelligent Orca stuff*
People: *Cheering like it's a game of football*

[despilato]

Hoomans destroying the serenity of the Antarctic with all that yelling

[jonbon]

Imagine one day you're just sitting at the park, chilling at a bench when suddenly a family of 7 monstrous polar bears comes and you take refuge on top of the playground. And at the same time a GARGANTUAN flying saucer flies up and you see its shutters slowly roll down to reveal the faces of hundreds of aliens watching you. The polar bears begin to ram into the playground that you've climbed to the roof of one of the structures using their massive 2 ton bodies each to weaken it. And then you hears cheering from the aliens and see multiple flashes of lights from cameras; they're taking pictures of the whole thing! The polar bears are coming in for another ram, 14 tons in all and bulldoze the playground right from underneath you as they ram through it. You take the chance to run the other way, escaping into the suburbs where they lose your trail.

[azhivago]

However interesting Orca hunting methods may be, a terrified and suffering animal is not something to whoop and cheer at.

[DJ-tttq]

Of course, seals kill too but Orcas are excellent hunters. Really intelligent too.

[whereisthelambsauce]

This seal has a 30% of living with that closer shattered ices just beside hi.

[qwertzism]

Don't underestimate seals, they are very fast and have ferocious weapons to injure the face/eyes of an orca. It is not so simple as it looks.

[finntastiq]

The seal didn't escape because it's skillful, but because the orcas were teaching the juvenile that failures mean no catch.

[billystpaul]

These people are the same ones that go up to wild animals in the National Parks to see how cute they are. I wish they would just leave the animals alone anf just let them be.

[katieholt]

That is one smart seal. I wonder how old it is to know to stay on ice then flee to bigger ice floes and escape then the orcas have their backs turned.