Rebecca Wellard

Killer whales off Australia have been seen killing and eating rare beaked whales – a behaviour never observed before.

Since 2014, a small team including Rebecca Wellard of Curtin University in Perth has been going out with commercial whale-watching boats to study killer whales off Australia’s south coast. On four occasions, they have seen and photographed groups of up to 20 killer whales attacking lone beaked whales.

The hunts lasted an hour or two. The orcas chased the beaked whales and eventually killed them by biting them and forcing them underwater to drown them. On two occasions they were seen stripping carcasses of skin, so it seems clear that these are predatory attacks.


The team has just published a paper detailing their observations.

Little is known about the killer whales that live around Australia. But it has become clear that populations elsewhere in the world have their own distinct cultures and specialise in particular prey. Some feed on fish such as herring, while others hunt mammals such as seals, dolphins and the calves of large whales.

The 2001 BBC documentary The Blue Planet famously featured harrowing footage of orcas pursuing and eventually killing a grey whale calf despite the mother’s efforts to protect it.

Almost nothing is known about beaked whales. They are rare, hard to spot on the surface and feed in deep waters. The species preyed on by the orcas in Australia are thought to be young or female strap-toothed whales (Mesoplodon layardii).

Journal reference: PloS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166670

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