photo credit: Jim Miles via King 5 News
Photographer Jim Miles captured this amazing scene of a mother orca appearing to be teaching her calf some valuable hunting skills. Miles witnessed this rarely seen event while on a recent whale watching cruise near the San Juan Islands in Washington state.
Miles told Seattle’s King 5 News:
“There were about seven whales, plus a very large male in the distance,” he said.
“The portion of the pod we were following were the adult females with their calves, and we actually got to witness this particular mom catch a harbor seal and show it to her baby!”
“Even our boat captain (Josh, of Outer Island Expeditions) said this was quite the unusual show and had to break out his camera. Now, mind you he does this ALL the time, so this was truly a very special afternoon.”
“We saw them play with each other: tail slaps, jumps, spy hoping, belly rolls, back flips!”
“As a nature photographer its very, very rare to witness wildlife acting like this, and I will NEVER EVER forget what an incredible experience we all had on the water on this day!
Check out the story from King 5 News here.