VIDEO: False killer whales hunt down baby shark off Sydney coast

By AG Staff Writer May 12, 2016
Reading Time: < 1 Print this page
Rare footage of a pod of false killer whales hunting down a juvenile shark has been captured by drone off Cronulla beach in Sydney’s south.

A DRONE HOBBYIST in Sydney has captured dramatic footage of a pod of what is believed to be false killer whales hunting down a juvenile shark off the coast of Cronulla beach.

The incredible footage was captured by Bruno Kataoka, a Brazillian-born photographer and drone hobbyist, and originally broadcast on Seven News.

“It’s amazing, that kind of footage is just so rare to catch,” Georgina Wood, a Fantasea marine biologist, told Seven News.

While it’s difficult to identify the species from the video alone, Georgina said it’s likely from their size and colouring that the hunters are false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens), which are actually the third largest member of the dolphin family (Delphinidae).

A fact to which the video attests, they are notoriously efficient pack hunters, and usually travel in herds of about 20-50 with both sexes – although every now and then large aggregations of 100-800 can occur, when herds congregate to exploit locally abundant prey.

Adult males can reach up to 6m in length, the females up to 5m.

The species of shark in the video has not been identified.

RELATED: