I am not sure who have seen the video that has been circling Facebook the past little while of a pod of orca chasing a gentoo penguin. Then the penguin dashes towards a zodiac vessel and in a last attempt for salvation leaps out of the water and into the vessel in order not be an orca snack.
If not, then here is the link to the YouTube clip
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One of my photos of the chase prior to the penguin jumping onto the vessel
The cool thing is that I was actually there on this day. I was operating a different zodiac but it was quite a rare and exceptional experience for everything involved. We were running a morning expedition at a landing site called Useful Island. This location is amazing as it gives us the opportunity to scan and search for large marine mammals in the Gerlache Strait - weather pending This can mean anything from large baleen whales, beaked whales and of course orca.
The weather that day was perfect and allowed a few of my colleagues to scan the strait from the top of the peak on Useful Island where they did indeed spot a pod of orca. I sped off in my vessel in the direction they provided and a few minutes later found the pod of orca in a very socialising mood. It was by far a day I will never forget but not for the same reason as this video depicts. My unforgettable moment was being interacted with by this amazing apex predator on a level not many people have or every will get to experience.
Basically, the orca that were involved in the chase were young juveniles who are excited and seemed to be in a state of play. Not far away from this group of juvenile orca was an older female who was just following the juveniles and not engaged in the penguin chase. This kind of behaviour is typical in apex predators with state of play being a lesson in learning different hunting tactics and behaviours. No doubt that if they caught the penguin they probably would have killed it... just not that day.
It wasn't long after the penguin jumped in my colleague & good friend Johann's vessel, which is seen in the video. The couple that filmed the whole moment was in another friend's vessel - Stef, a good friend who I get to work with as well. However, once the penguin had left the game that the older female who was 'babysitting' began to swim away and very soon afterwards all three juvenile orca involved in the chase turned and quickly swam after her in haste.
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