In the waters off British Columbia, scientists have documented what appears to be the first case of killer whales and dolphins teaming up to hunt together. Two apex predators who seem like they should have allied centuries ago have finally created a tag team that’s gonna take the ocean by storm… assuming this ever happens again.
More specifically, these are northern resident killer whales and Pacific white-sided dolphins. These species compete for the same salmon, yet they’re regularly seen swimming side-by-side without any exchange of animosity between them. That made researchers think these two might be in cahoots.
But they couldn’t have been, right? That’d really be something.
Killer Whales and Dolphins Joined Up Together in the First-Ever Recorded Hunt
According to findings published in Scientific Reports, the research team tracked nine killer whales around Vancouver Island in 2020 to test this out. They used movement data, acoustic recordings, aerial drones, and even cameras mounted on the whales themselves, turning them into their own documentary crew.
They found that there were 25 encounters in which whales saw a pod of dolphins, veered toward them, and dove in unison to form a joint fish-hunting task force. Pretty neat, right?
The researchers think the whales are like Danny Ocean of Ocean’s Eleven, assembling a crew with different skill sets to perform specialized tasks. Dolphins use a quieter hunting style that helps them locate Chinook salmon without spooking them, while killer whales can chop up big salmon into smaller bits that the Dolphins can eat.
It is also the added benefit of hanging around with a trusted group of whales who can protect them from a group of passing orcas, the psychotic assholes of the sea.
The evidence supporting this theory was footage captured by the researchers showing killer whales sharing dismembered salmon among themselves. At the same time, dolphins hung out nearby, occasionally scavenging leftovers without raising the whales’ ire.
Of course, the researchers are being cautious with this discovery. They don’t yet know whether this is a one-off that was miraculously captured on camera, or part of a larger trend we’re only now observing.
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