{"id":2188698,"date":"2025-10-09T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2188698"},"modified":"2025-10-04T14:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T12:16:12","slug":"never-seen-before-bbc-footage-captures-killer-whales-pretending-to-drown-one-of-their-own-in-chilling-hunting-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/never-seen-before-bbc-footage-captures-killer-whales-pretending-to-drown-one-of-their-own-in-chilling-hunting-session\/","title":{"rendered":"Never-seen-before BBC footage captures killer whales pretending to drown one of their own in chilling hunting session"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From wave washing seals off Antarctic ice to snatching sea lions from the shoreline, killer whales are renowned for their effective hunting techniques.<\/p>\n<p>Now, killer whales have been filmed practising a new technique to hunt the largest animal to have ever lived: blue whales.<\/p>\n<p>In footage narrated by David Attenborough for the BBC TV series Parenthood, a pod gathers for a practise run of their method, which consists of piling on one of the orcas and covering its blowhole, effectively \u2018drowning\u2019 the animal.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s then time for the real thing.<\/p>\n<p>While orcas work in groups to take down prey including young humpback whales, whale sharks and even great whites, studies of orcas killing blue whales were only first published in 2022.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Killer whales use new hunting technique to kill blue whale | Parenthood - BBC\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yfs6ef5YcFs\" 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><i>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/marine-animals\/bbc-orcas-drowning-blue-whales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">article<\/a> by Sophie Ellis was first published by Discover Wildlife on 19 September 2025. Lead Image: A pair of killer whales in Western Australia in BBC&#8217;s Parenthood. Credit: BBC\/Silverback Films.<\/i><\/p>\n<h2>What you can do<\/h2>\n<p><em>Help to protect wildlife by donating as little as $5 &#8211; it only takes a minute!\u00a0<\/em><\/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?default_interval=m&amp;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<p><em>Our <a href=\"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wildlife-charities-supported-by-focusing-on-wildlife\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">conservation partners<\/a> spend at least 90 percent of the money raised on actual fieldwork\u00a0rather than administration and fundraising.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2205082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/Orcas-BBC-Parenthood.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[12053,2402,3816,12120],"class_list":["post-2188698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-blue-whales","tag-humpback-whales","tag-killer-whales","tag-whale-sharks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188698","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=2188698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2205082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}