Watch an Orca Knock Stingray Out Cold With its Tail—for ‘Play’

A pod of orcas, or killer whales, circles a stingray in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico for what is really close encounter with diver and filmmaker Jorge Cervera Hauser. An orca uses a powerful tail swat to stun the stingray. Sometimes orcas swat for “play,” and sometimes they eat the stunned or dead animal.

Although orcas do eat stingrays, Hauser believes these orcas were “showing off.” They slapped and circled it for more than an hour, before letting it sink to the seafloor, uneaten. Even though he too could have been tail-slapped, Hauser says, “it was the most amazing underwater experience I've had in my life.”