How predators kill their prey is a fascinating subject. Big cats typically either asphyxiate by pressing down on an animal’s trachea with paws and mouth, though lions will also stop its prey from breathing by covering its mouth and nose with their jaws. Jaguars deliver the coup de grace with a bite to the skull. […]
Tag: Blue Whales
9 animals that could take on (and probably kill) a saltwater crocodile: Just which creatures are able to take on one of the world’s deadliest animals?
The saltwater crocodile, also known as the estuarine crocodile or saltie, is the largest of all living reptiles. Males can exceed 6m in length and a tonne in weight and are widely touted as producing the strongest bite-force of any animal. Like other crocodilians, they dismantle their prey using a manoeuvre called the ‘death roll’, which […]
Ocean’s most powerful, ruthless killers: The world’s top 9 marine predators that rule the waves
In the ocean, everything relies on tiny plankton.These provide nutrients for animals at the bottom of the food web which are eaten by larger species, and so on. At the top of the food chain, large predators (often with huge teeth) have perfected their hunting strategies for millennia, giving them the best possible chance to […]
Humpback Whale Population Now Well Above Pre-Whaling Levels in Australia
The recovery of the eastern Australian humpback whale population has been described as nothing short of a “miracle,” such that the majestic beasts number more now than they did before commercial whaling. When homeowners today along the coasts of Australia file noise complaints, it’s likely to be from motor boats or late-night parties, but there […]
Never-seen-before BBC footage captures killer whales pretending to drown one of their own in chilling hunting session
From wave washing seals off Antarctic ice to snatching sea lions from the shoreline, killer whales are renowned for their effective hunting techniques. Now, killer whales have been filmed practising a new technique to hunt the largest animal to have ever lived: blue whales. In footage narrated by David Attenborough for the BBC TV series […]
Why have blue whales stopped singing? The mystery worrying scientists
Whale songs are far removed from the singing that humans are used to. Unlike our musical sounds, those produced by whales are a complex range of vocalisations that include groans, clicks and whistles and that can sound like anything from the mooing of a cow to the twitter of a bird. These vocalisations can be […]
Incredibly Rare Sight Of 60 Orcas Hunting A Pygmy Blue Whale Caught On Camera
Tourists and researchers on a whale-watching boat off the coast of Western Australia got a little more action than they bargained for when they witnessed a pygmy blue whale being hunted and eventually predated upon by a huge pod of orcas. Pygmy blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) are a subspecies of the largest creature ever […]
With Sea Ice Melting, Killer Whales Are Moving Into the Arctic
In the winter of 2020, Inuit hunters in Canada’s Central Arctic came across the frozen carcasses of 11 beached bowhead whales, enormous marine mammals that have made a slow but steady comeback since they were driven to the brink of extinction by late 19th and early 20th century whalers. Unsure of what killed the whales, […]