Whale makes meal of orca and calf
By Rachel Tiffen
4:00 AM Friday Mar 26, 2010
Pseudorca. Photo / Creative Commons image
A boatload of tourists got to witness nature at its most brutal when a killer whale flicked a pseudo orca high into the air, broke its back and ate both it and its calf in the Bay of Islands yesterday.
The attack occurred at the Black Rocks, about four nautical miles from Paihia, after a pod of eight killer whales chased more than a dozen pseudo orcas.
As its name suggests, the pseudo orca shares characteristics with the real orca (or “killer whale”) in that it has a similar look and the same deadly nature.
Explore Images director Rob Hunt, whose photographers captured the killing from aboard a Dolphin Discoveries boat, said it was a “one in a million” viewing.
Read full article from The New Zealand Herald.
Filed under: Ali Perkins, Diving New Zealand, News/Current Affairs
What’s the difference? The orca knows.
It was a question many Herald readers wanted answered – what the heck is a pseudorca?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10634607