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Patagonia orca

Congratulations to Rob Lott, WDCS Policy Manager, who on his recent sabbatical leave in Patagonia took some amazing photographs of an orca trying to catch a southern sealion pup by coming up onto the shore. These images which capture the drama of the moment are of such high quality that they have been widely used in the UK press and beyond. This included a double centre page spread of a single picture in the Guardian on July 1st. Rob’s pictures were also featured in the Sun, Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mirror and Daily Mail and can also be seen on the ABC network website.

Rob comments “It was an amazing experience and the chance of a lifetime to study these incredible animals. What really struck me about these orcas were the strong bonds between pod members. If an orca was successful in capturing a sealion pup they immediately took it offshore to share with other pod members which, for reasons that are still unclear, don’t strand themselves.”

Mark Simmonds, WDCS Director of Science adds “For some these images may increase their notion that whales really are monsters. However, orcas are highly social animals with strong family bonds and individuals often stay in their family groups for their whole lives. This feeding behaviour is learnt by the younger whales from the older ones and is only known from this one group of whales. Orcas are specialists, with different groups specialising in eating different prey. Some, for example, specialise in eating bony fish, some sharks and others, like this family in Patagonia, other marine mammals”.

To see Rob’s pictures please go here:

Out of the Blue

Daily Mail

The Sun

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