Whale-Eat-Whale Drama Videotaped

Scientists in Monterey Bay saw a rare sight last week: a pod of killer whales attacking and devouring the offspring of a California gray whale.

Videotapes made at the scene may be the best documentation yet of the phenomenon.

In two attacks last week, several orcas, or killer whales, followed female gray whales and their calves. The orcas isolated and killed the younger whales. The mother gray whales, often twice the size of the orcas, were seriously injured and may have died later, the researchers said.

“Ultimately, the orcas have the advantage, in numbers and the cooperative nature of their hunting,” said Alan Baldridge of Stanford University.