Pelagic bottlenose dolphins are longer and more robust than those on our coast, yet they are dwarfed by torpedo-shaped pseudorca, or false killer whales. Researchers find New Zealand’s pseudorca in the presence of bottlenose dolphins almost all of the time – a happy arrangement that gives pseudorca the advantage of a large pod, and dolphins the benefit of a bit of muscle.
My first encounter with pseudorca was by chance, 7-years ago at the Poor Knights Islands marine reserve off New Zealand’s Northland coast. At the time, I was not even sure what I had just witnessed and could find little information on the facultative behaviour I had experienced, until meeting marine scientist Jochen Zaeschmar, who has devoted his life to these rarely studied mammals.
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2017
Read the New Zealand Geographic feature forged form this project: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/where-the-wild-things-are/