Orcas are known to be voracious predators, but not many people get the chance to witness them in action. So when photographer Evans Baudin not only witnessed a hunt, but also captured it on camera, he felt particularly lucky.
Baudin, the owner of Baja Shark Experience in Baja California Sur, was diving near Los Cabos when he saw a group of orcas team up to hunt and then devour a bottlenose dolphin.
“That lucky day, I was able to document a complete scene, from start to finish, of their hunting strategy off the coast of Los Cabos. It was absolutely amazing how organized they were to separate the dolphin from the rest of its pod,” Baudin shared on Instagram. “It seemed that every move of the orcas was planned long in advance, like a synchronized dance repeated hundreds of times and with surgical precision … The dolphin had no way of escape. The hunt lasted about 40 minutes before the group of killer whales could finally capture the dolphin and share it.”
In Baudin’s stunning photo of the events, a mother orca and its offspring share a piece of dolphin meat.
Orca diets depend on where they live, Baudin said, and Baja California orcas have been documented feeding on rays, sharks, turtles, dolphins and even whales.
With reports from Síntesis TV and BCS Noticias