PILOT whales are the cheetahs of the oceans, hunting juicy prey in short, intense chases. They are the first deep-diving whales known to use such a strategy.
Until now, it had been thought that whales always minimise their oxygen use under water by cruising slowly to graze on slow-moving prey. But when Peter Tyack of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and colleagues attached data recorders to 23 short-finned pilot whales off the Canary Islands, they found something different. Near the bottom of their deep dives, the animals made a sudden sprint of 30 seconds or less, accompanied by a…
