WATCH: Breathtakingly eerie GoPro footage of dolphins hunting will blow your mind
Updated | By Preneil Pillay
This footage of dolphins hunting will give you an adrenaline rush.
Let's talk dolphins, which seems appropriate because of our proudly KZN local cricket team the Hollywoodbets Dolphins.
Dolphins have always been one of nature's most fascinating mammals. As intelligent and majestic as they are, they're also quite brutal - just like us humans, right?
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We came across this insane video of how these creatures hunt and it honestly left us breathless.
We're not sure if it's the GoPro footage that had us on the edge of our seats, the actual hunt or their victory "squeal" after acquiring their prey. When dolphins hunt, they emit sonar clicks, often referred to as echolocation.
Echolocation is the unique ability to "see" with "sound" and is a trait they share with whales, porpoises, and bats.
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Hold on tight!
Check out this video footage of dolphins with GoPros hunting venomous sea snakes:
Scarily incredible, right?
Breathtaking, but eerie, right?
In the video, the dolphins can be seen approaching their prey, the clicks sped up to become a buzz, punctuated with a squeal as they caught and swallowed their meal.
The research was led by prominent marine-mammal scientist Sam Ridgway, also known as the "Dolphin Doctor" - understandably so. Ridgeway has since passed away, but these videos were a part of his final research efforts.
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This was also the first time Ridgway and his team managed to catch a dolphin hunt this close in action on camera.
A research paper titled, "Sights and sounds dolphins, Tursiops truncatus preying on native fish of San Diego Bay and offshore in the Pacific Ocean" can be found on PLOS ONE if you're interested in reading more about it.
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Here a super cool - and super scary - fact or two about dolphins...
They're able to use sonar to tell the difference between humans and other large objects and fish in the sea. According to Scuba, scientists believe that dolphins recognise humans as fellow air-breathing mammals, especially fascinated with pregnant women as their sonar can penetrate our bodies and “see” inside us - echolocation.
Click here for more crazy and cool facts about dolphins...
According to Best Life, they've been known to torture their food before eating it, murder other animals just for fun, and even kill each other's babies.
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Click here for more reasons dolphins are more dangerous than you ever thought.
There's no doubt that these mammals are incredible creatures. They've often been compared to us humans because of their incredible abilities to do many of the things humans are capable of doing, too. Hence, they're often referred to as the "humans of the sea".
Okay, one last fun fact before we go...
Did you know that Orca (killer whales) are actually dolphins? The largest of the dolphin species, too! Killer whales have been spotted right here on KZN's Dolphin Coast in Ballito - obviously.
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If you'd like to get up close and see some dolphins in KwaZulu-Natal, click here.
If you'd like to find more things to do in KZN, click here.
Watch the video of the killer whales that were spotted in Ballito below:
And if there's one thing we do know for sure - they're hardcore, too!
Read more: Orcas blamed for the disappearance of South Africa's great white sharks
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Main image attribution: US Navy/National Marine/Morgan McFall-Johnsen
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