One of the best nature videos I have seen

by on June 25, 2012 at 12:09 pm in Science, Television | Permalink

Killer whales hunt a seal, from the superb series Frozen Planet.

14 comments

Adrian Bravo June 25, 2012 at 12:15 pm

Here’s another amazing clip from Frozen Planet, Criminal Penguins:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f–GZSptnk

Hoover June 25, 2012 at 4:01 pm

Tragedy of the commons.

Wise penguins ought to appoint young penguins to guard the rocks.

Alternatively, the penguin state should waddle in. All rocks should be deposited at a central point, and an elite should distribute the rocks according to need. Naturally, those responsible for distributing should get a few extra rocks for themselves.

david June 26, 2012 at 12:02 am

Kinship structures in the wild do work like that, to the relative detriment of loners.

david June 25, 2012 at 11:56 pm

You see theft like this amongst birds that build elaborate nests too, but twigs and leaves rot. These are pebbles. The nests should be outliving each generation of penguins. Why aren’t pre-made nests proliferating in huge numbers?

Andreas Moser June 25, 2012 at 1:20 pm

The “Frozen Planet” also had surfing penguins who surfed on waves and were airborne for a few seconds.
Fantastic + beautiful!

Unfortunately I couldn’t find these on YouTube yet.

mkt June 25, 2012 at 9:12 pm

An “unfrozen planet” documentary that I saw a couple of weeks ago showed me something that I hadn’t known about: stingrays will often jump out of the water too, flapping their wings. Starts at 0:45 of this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHrrS_hOnZw

Nikki June 25, 2012 at 3:09 pm

Thanks for the nightmares.

Michael June 25, 2012 at 3:57 pm

No David Attenborough?!

Rahul June 25, 2012 at 4:11 pm

I felt bad for the seal.

Bristol June 25, 2012 at 4:42 pm

The Japanese were right – let’s eat the eaters!

Actually we could eat the seals too.

Michael Heller June 25, 2012 at 5:53 pm

This is a common-old-garden-variety event in which a deer pretends to be a shark (dog plays seal)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/pets/9351587/Deer-attack-on-dog-caught-on-camera.html

BTW, what is the only difference between animal society and human society? The law!

Ray Lopez June 26, 2012 at 3:09 pm

Interesting how the seal tired so quickly at the end, apparently from being out of water and having to struggle to move, and the human divers in the water took such risks with their lives filming this episode. The orcas may have not eaten the seal earlier because of the presence of the humans, who distracted them. Nicely done video, dangerous looking.

Alex W June 28, 2012 at 7:27 pm

I LOVE the Frozen Planet series and can’t get enough of the flying penguins. :) I’m working with the Hollywood Bowl and thought you and your readers would be interested to know that the live version of the series will be at the Bowl next weekend (July 6-7) featuring a Frozen Planet on the big screen with live orchestra accompaniment by the LA Philharmonic. The show features some really awesome augmented reality and is family fun. If you’re in Southern California, there are still tickets available: http://hbowl.com/BBCFrozenPlanet.

Saliency June 29, 2012 at 12:22 pm

Great link, thanks.

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