Do orcas hunt adult elephant seals?

At Sea Lion Island, the main killer whale target are the elephant seals. Although killer whales are routinely observed chasing sea lions, penguins, and even steamer ducks, they concentrate on elephant seals, that is probably the species that guarantees the best return for the effort.

Can an orca kill a elephant seal?

Predation of elephant seals

At Sea Lion Island killer whales can attack and kill breeding females, subadult males, and even large adult males. In the last case they are usually able to produce great damage but not enough to kill the seal.

Do orcas eat bull elephant seals?

White sharks and orcas are the only known animals to prey on the large elephant seals, according to the National Park Service.

Do orcas eat southern elephant seals?

Antarctic type A killer whales have been observed hunting southern elephant seals.

What animal preys on elephant seals?

Large southern elephant seals have few predators, but killer whales, leopard seals, and some large sharks are known to feed on this species.

Orca vs. Elephant Seal | Nat Geo Wild

Who would win orca vs sperm whale?

Orcas are faster than sperm whales, and they have better endurance to boot. An orca can move up to 30 mph in the water, maintaining a substantial portion of that speed for a while. Sperm whales move at about 4 mph on average, but they can burst forth at about 23 mph. Orcas have a speed advantage over sperm whales.

Do orcas hunt walrus?

Orcas hunt everything from fish to walruses, seals, sea lions, penguins, squid, sea turtles, sharks, and even other kinds of whales. Depending on the season and where they are, their diet varies—some orcas eat more fishes and squid than seals and penguins.

Do great white sharks eat elephant seals?

These immature seals are the preferred prey of the white shark at the Farallon Islands. Observations there indicate that the white sharks eat young elephant seals seven times more frequently than they eat other pinnipeds, such as California sea lions and harbor seals.

What's bigger elephant seal or walrus?

These seals are famous for being big. They are the biggest of pinnipeds – bigger even than walruses – there being a record of a giant male Southern elephant seal that was between 6.5 and 6.8 m long and weighed over 4000 kg (Carwardine 1995).

Do killer whales hunt leopard seals?

They are known to eat fish, squid, krill, and juveniles of other seal species, in addition to penguins. Killer whales are the only species known to eat leopard seals.

Which is bigger killer whale or elephant?

It is TRUE. The killer whale, also called orca, is the largest member of the dolphin family. This giant of the seas is 30 ft.

Do leopard seals eat elephant seals?

Leopard seals are the only seal species known to actively prey on other seals, taking pups of crabeater, Weddell, Ross, southern elephant and Antarctic fur seals.

Can elephant seals kill sharks?

Such attacks are unusual because big bull elephant seals can be formidable foes for sharks, said biologist Brian Hatfield of the US Geological Service. He told the Fresno Bee: “They're massive and have big teeth."

Do orcas kill sea lions?

Killer Whales Kill Baby Sea Lions

With their powerful flukes killer whale have been observed batting a full grown sea lion 20 to 30 feet in the air.

Can a leopard seal kill a shark?

Leopard seals are already known as apex predators, who feed on penguins and other seals, but this is the first time evidence has been produced of them hunting sharks.

Are elephants bigger than Great White sharks?

It is TRUE. The whale shark weighs between 12 and 18 tons, which is more than three elephants put together.

Has anyone been attacked by elephant seals?

There's an aggressive elephant seal on the loose in California. Nibbles, as he's known, has bitten a surfer, a kayaker and killed a dozen harbor seals. Apparently, the young male seal has been unlucky in love and is not happy about it.

What seal eats other seals?

Leopard seals eat almost anything, including penguins, fish, squid, and crustaceans. Like the crabeater seals, leopard seals have unusual teeth for straining krill from the water. They also eat the pups of other seal species including crabeater, Weddell and southern fur seals.

Has a shark ever eaten a bear?

These incredible Greenland sharks can survive for more than 200 years at depths of up to 600 metres under Arctic ice. Bigger than the notorious great white, they grow to 23-feet long and are so fearsome they have even been known to eat polar bears.

What would win polar bear vs grizzly?

Put more bluntly, when polar bears and grizzly bears are both competing for food, its the polar bears that are more likely to walk away from conflict and leave the prize for grizzly bears. The bottom line: in a fight between a polar bear and grizzly bear, the grizzly bear reigns supreme.

Do killer whales eat moose?

Orcas occasionally eat moose. While both animals live in different habitats, there is a predator-prey relationship. There's no evidence that killer whales eat moose regularly, but they do sometimes.

Do orcas eat dolphins?

Looking at all populations, orcas are generalist eaters, consuming fish, seals and sea lions, dolphins and porpoises, sharks and rays, large whales, cephalopods (octopods and squids), seabirds and more.

Are polar bears afraid of walruses?

In fact, an aggressive walrus can be dangerous for a polar bear in the water. There have been isolated observations of walruses attacking polar bears in the water, though it is unusual. In the water, too, walruses generally react to polar bears as to predators – they fear and avoid them.

How many seals do orcas eat a day?

Studies of captive orcas show that adult females eat about 100 pounds a day, according to Graeme Ellis, Ford's colleague at the Canadian agency. Ellis has identified 11 whales in Hood Canal: five females, two males and four calves.