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“It was the height that the seal caught that particular day and the way the male had gone on his back to do it,” Lees said. “It’s not often we see them doing it with the tail like that. It happens but, you know, that’s definitely one of those rarer activities we see out there.”
The mom and son appeared to finish the seal off underwater, which Lees said is pretty common after starting an attack at the surface.
Sometimes he can tell the whales have got their prey even when they dip below the surface, because there’s an oily sheen on the water and a whiff of what smells like sweet cucumber from the oils of the seal.
While a rare sight to witness, the behaviour is not uncommon for Bigg’s killer whales, said Jackie Hildering, an education director at the Marine Education and Research Society in Port McNeill.
The orcas will often put on dramatic displays with prey when socializing, learning or playing, she said, and may not even eat the animal.
Tossing a seal might be a particular whale’s hunting style to disable the animal,
but it’s not essential to kill a seal, which is easy prey for Bigg’s killer whales, Hildering said.
“It’s usually younger members of the population will do things like hit birds with their tails at the surface, little diving birds, and then suck them in as well as spit them back out” or carry around a piece of seal for a while, she said.
Bigg’s killer whales are “extraordinarily social” animals, and the behaviours are linked to learning and play. Younger whales can hone their hunting skills by learning to hit prey with accuracy and manipulate small pieces of prey, Hildering said.
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In rare photo, killer whale uses tail to toss seal high into the air near Victoria - Vancouver Sun
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