People often think of great white sharks as the apex predators of the sea. There is, however, one member of the dolphin family that is arguably the most omnipotent of all sea creatures: the orca whale. And one wild reality is that they can be found in every ocean on Earth. In fact, one made a few brief appearances in the lineup of Uluwatu, Indonesia last year. And even more dissimilar to their great white counterpart is a set of some very, very bizarre hunting habits.
Orca whales have been known to play and even torture their prey, often without eating it. Perhaps like a cat would do to a mouse. This sort of behavior is frequently reported, but seldom captured in eerie detail.
The footage was captured by Mike Walker, owner of Roll.Focus.Productions, who was filming a promotional video for a whale-watching company near Victoria, British Columbia. In the video, a transient male killer whale—named T69C—can be seen launching a harbor seal some 80 feet into the air with a flick of its giant tail.
One theory of this seemingly evil behavior is that in order to avoid injury, they will disable their prey before killing and eating it. This may involve throwing it in the air, slapping it with their tails, ramming it, or breaching and landing on it. But for whatever their reason, it just goes to show that nature can be a cruel bitch at times.
