A rare moment was captured by a National Geographic film crew, showing a killer whale and its calf together drowning another calf from their pod.
Mother and calf killer whales engage in the brutal act of killing a juvenile. (Video: National Geographic)
In the video, the female killer whale (Orcinus orca) and its calf start playing with another juvenile, a behavior commonly observed when two pods swim together off the coast of South Africa. However, the playtime quickly turns violent. An immature male killer whale aggressively pushes the juvenile, then collaborates with its mother to corner the juvenile, ultimately pushing it underwater to drown it. This footage is part of National Geographic’s “Queens” series, which explores the behaviors of dominant females in the animal kingdom, as reported by Live Science on March 19.
The act of killing a juvenile is very rare among killer whales and not something the film crew anticipated capturing. “This behavior is so rare that we believe this might be the first recorded instance of killer whales killing a juvenile”, shared Chloe Sarosh, the show’s producer. “We did not plan to film this. It was just a case of being in the right place at the right time.”
The act of killing a juvenile is very rare among killer whales.
The crew filmed the confrontation for several hours, according to Sarosh. A few days later, a killer whale carcass matching the size and description of the drowned juvenile washed up on a beach 8 kilometers away.
Due to the unexpected nature of the confrontation, the film crew reached out to several scientists to help decode the behavior and confirm that it was indeed a case of juvenile slaughter. While the actions of the dominant female killer whale and its son were clear, understanding the reactions of the other pod members and their roles will require further analysis.
“That’s why this footage is so important, as it gives scientists the opportunity to identify fins and markings on individual whales as well as their roles in the behavior,” Sarosh said.
