WATCH: Gray whale 'supermum' fends off savage orca attack
As their name would suggest, killer whales can be rather relentless, but even a dozen of them were no match for one defensive mother.
Incredible drone footage has captured the moment a pod of 12 orca whales attempted to drown a grey whale calf in a frenzied attack off Monterey, California.
Working as a unit, the visibly hungry orcas ambush the mother and calf in a ferocious attempt to notch a kill.
Again and again, the orcas attempt to separate the pair and isolate the calf but as whale researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger put it, “this wasn’t her first rodeo”.
“This was an extraordinary and robust gray whale mom just determined not to lose her calf,” Schulman-Janiger said.
“She was a world-champion breath holder. She’d stay down for several minutes at a time with no blows, so he could hold her calf’s head above water.”
The ordeal was far from short either; it’s believed the pod persisted for more than an hour in their efforts before they eventually retrieved.
The failed kill follows a recent string off attacks in southern California which has seen seven attacks and six kills in the past 12 days.
