{"id":2186092,"date":"2025-03-14T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2186092"},"modified":"2025-03-14T14:33:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T13:33:01","slug":"killer-whales-amaze-seattle-onlookers-with-rarely-seen-bird-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/killer-whales-amaze-seattle-onlookers-with-rarely-seen-bird-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer whales amaze Seattle onlookers with rarely seen bird hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A pod of orcas swam close to shore and amazed onlookers in Seattle by treating the whale watchers to the rare sight of the apex predators hunting a bird.<\/p>\n<p>The pod of Bigg\u2019s killer whales visited Elliott Bay and were seemingly on a hunt underwater just off Seattle\u2019s maritime industrial docks. The pod exited the bay close to the West Seattle neighborhood across from downtown, where people were waiting to catch sight of them.<\/p>\n<p>Kersti Muul, who runs a WhatsApp whale alert system for the Seattle area called \u201cSalish Wildlife Watch\u201d, recorded footage as the whales appeared just below a lookout point.<\/p>\n<p>One of the whales was seen capturing a bird and taking it below water, sparking gasps from onlookers.<\/p>\n<p>It was \u201ca once-in-a-lifetime experience for West Seattle. Not only in the whales\u2019 proximity, but also witnessing a rarely seen behavior \u2013 chasing and catching the grebe,\u201d Muul said in a text. \u201cMy eyes darted back and forth taking in the community\u2019s reactions and the orcas right below our feet, visible underwater.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Pod of killer whales amaze Seattle onlookers with rarely seen bird hunt\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s-K9d2m14GA\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bigg\u2019s killer whales are orcas that usually prey on marine mammals such as sea lions or porpoises. They visit the waters off Seattle occasionally and both dedicated and casual whale watchers shadow them as they explore. The pod sighted on Sunday has ventured into the Seattle waters several times over the past month.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a bonding experience for the community,\u201d Muul said. \u201cAnd my hope is always that these moments inspire awe and awareness of the urban wildlife in our backyards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/mar\/03\/seattle-killer-whales-hunt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">article<\/a> by Associated Press was published by The Guardian on 4 March 2025.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<h2>What you can do<\/h2>\n<p>Wildlife continues to face threats from overexploitation in the form of poaching and illegal trade in animal products, as well as a rapidly changing climate.<\/p>\n<p>Due to growing threats, 70% of all animal and plant species are at risk of extinction by 2050.<\/p>\n<p>With your donation, our <a href=\"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wildlife-charities-supported-by-focusing-on-wildlife\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">conservation partners<\/a> can continue to motivate millions of people worldwide to take action that protects and preserves wildlife at risk.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/install-popup-button.js\" id=\"donorbox-popup-button-installer\"> <\/script><a id=\"preview_inline_popup_button\" class=\"dbox-donation-button\" style=\"background: #0dc5dc; color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; display: flex; gap: 8px; width: fit-content; font-size: 16px; border-radius: 5px; line-height: 24px; padding: 8px 24px;\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/focusing-on-wildlife-needs-your-support?amount=50\" data-reminder-widget-enabled=\"true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" fifu-lazy=\"1\" fifu-data-sizes=\"auto\" fifu-data-srcset=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 75w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 100w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 150w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 240w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 320w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 500w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 640w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 800w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 1024w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 1280w, https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg 1600w\" fifu-data-src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/images\/white_logo.svg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">Donate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A pod of orcas swam close to shore and amazed onlookers in Seattle by treating the whale watchers to the rare sight of the apex predators hunting a bird. The pod of Bigg\u2019s killer whales visited Elliott Bay and were seemingly on a hunt underwater just off Seattle\u2019s maritime industrial docks. The pod exited the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2204005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/2beee483c66c9e5c7e27e5e2c11bfe6f3d8427b9\/0_0_6000_3600\/master\/6000.jpg?width=750&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none","fifu_image_alt":"Killer whales amaze Seattle onlookers with rarely seen bird hunt","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[3816,9749,903],"class_list":["post-2186092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-killer-whales","tag-orcas","tag-sea-lion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2186092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2186092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2204005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2186092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2186092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2186092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}