Today the orcas we encountered were in the mood to have some “fun”
One came up to the boat to catch a big jellyfish and then carried it around for several minutes while swimming, sometimes upside-down, to look at our reaction.
While another orca, a juvenile probably from the same group, was swimming very fast and pushed itself several times to the surface with high energy.
At first, I didn’t know what was going on. Then, you can see some buoys behind the juvenile. I was worried that it might get caught in the buoys, hence the big movements as the orca tried to get away…
Luckily, I was wrong. After a short while, I saw a tiny little auk in front of the juvenile…
Poor bird became the toy for this little orca today…
It is typical for juvenile orcas to “practice” different hunting techniques (or have fun) with birds…
In the picture, the juvenile’s mouth is open and full of water… I have not seen the bird surfacing after that…
You can also clearly see on the muscles that this young orca used all of its power to catch the auk. All of its muscles are very tight…
-Krisztina/Orca Channel
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