THIS is the chilling moment killer whales practice drowning each other in a horror training session caught on video for the first time.
The moment was captured on film for an upcoming five-part BBC nature doc narrated by Sir David Attenborough on parenthood.
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Led by a matriarch, one of the orcas stands in as a body double for a victim and stops swimming.
The others then swim on top of it and hold it below the water.
The incredible footage is caught off the coast of Bremer Bay in Western Australia.
Attenborough narrates: “One deliberately stops swimming in order to enable the others to practice a particular skill.
“They push it beneath the surface and submerge its blowhole to prevent it from breathing.
“They are practising the actions they will use to drown their prey.”
That pod of orca need to be good at drowning their prey because they hunt blue whales – the largest animals which have ever lived.
Footage then sees the pod attack and drown a blue whale.
Attenborough says: “The blue whale seems to have been caught off-guard. Working as a team, the orca keep their victim’s blowhole beneath the surface, exactly as the matriarch taught them to.”
A BBC spokeswoman said: “Specialised underwater gimbals and tow cameras were used to bring cameras alongside hunting orcas underwater.
“This technology allowed the crew to travel at the same speed as the orca hunting pack and provided new insights into their behaviour.
“The practice-hunting behaviour appears to show members of an orca family submerging the head of one individual to prevent it from breathing — the technique used by killer whales to hunt large whales.
“This practice-hunting behaviour has never been filmed before.”
Parenthood’s five-part series will explore the “extraordinary strategies and ingenious tricks that animal parents employ to give their young a head start in life”.
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It was filmed over three years and across 23 countries and will go from the Indian Ocean, to Hippos in Africa, to Orangutan in the jungles of Indonesia.
Attenborough said: “Parenthood is a journey like no other. The responsibility of providing constant food and safety for offspring can be extremely challenging.
“For most, it all begins with a good home. Success for all parents has perhaps the greatest of consequences. It ensures the future of life on our planet.”
The shocking footage comes after orcas nearly capsized a yacht and left a helpless crew fearing for their lives.
The terrifying encounter, said to be linked to the bloodthirsty White Gladis pod, took place two miles north of the Spanish town of Deba.
Shocked witnesses first reported the dangerous scenes after several orcas surrounded the 30ft boat which was stranded out at sea.
At least two of the beasts then attacked and left the ship severely damaged, with the rudder shredded.
In July of last year, a Brit yachtsman posted video footage of his boat sinking after it was attacked by orcas.
Robert Powell and two others on the Bonhomme William had to be rescued by coastguards after their vessel capsized in the Strait of Gibraltar.
Last year, Brit couple Janet Morris, 58, and Stephen Bidwell, 58, from Cambridge, were involved in a whale attack that lasted for an hour.
The orcas off the Iberian coast often average between 16ft to 21ft in length.
Why do orcas attack boats?
WHILE researchers are unsure exactly why killer whales have been attacking boats so often lately, many theories have been put forward.
Some experts suggest it could be a playful manifestation of the animals’ curiosity.
But others fear a “critical moment of agony” such as a collision may have sparked aggression towards boats.
Alfredo López Fernandez, a biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, told LiveScience: “That traumatized orca is the one that started this behaviour of physical contact with the boat.”
Some even speculate White Gladis may now be spurring fellow killer whales on.
Orcas are the largest members of the oceanic dolphin family.
Although they never attack humans, the apex predators can take down large groups of whales, hence the name killer.
What makes them a unique marine mammal is that they often hunt in lethal pods and family groups of up to 40 individuals – and feast on fish, dolphins, seal lions, seals, sharks and stingrays.
The carnivores can grow up to 32ft long and weigh up to six tons – and are immediately recognizable by their distinctive black-and-white colouring.
