Life require death. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Nature is brutal sometimes. It’s a sad fact that life requires death, and when it comes to predators, there are few more feared in the wild than orcas. They’re not a danger to people — unless the orca has been locked in a pool for too long — but to its prey, the orca is terrifying. In this video from Carlos Gauna, the man behind the Malibu Artist YouTube channel, a pod of orcas shows why they’re also known as killer whales. “This is not a world of villains and heroes,” Gauna says. “Only survival.”
In this incredible footage, Gauna captures a pod of orcas hunting a humpback whale calf as the mother tries desperately to protect her. It’s a tough watch, to be sure, but this is what survival looks like in the wild. Humans have created a way of life that insulates us from the realities of what it takes to live. We might be able to shove those realities away by shopping for slabs of meat at the grocery store without really comprehending that those slabs of meat came from a living, breathing animal, it doesn’t change the fact that they did.
After the calf breaches, the family of orcas are alerted to the fact that they have a potential meal nearby. When the calf dives, the orcas take advantage of the fact that the mother and calf are separated. “The orcas’ strategy is clear,” Gauna explains. “Surround, isolate, and exhaust.”
Despite the mother’s best efforts, the orcas prevail. Although it is heartbreaking, it means the young orcas will live on, and they are just as incredible and important as the humpback.
