Bait and snatch…
From Yahoo News:
First, the young whale spit regurgitated fish onto the surface of the water, then sank below the water and waited.
If a hungry gull landed on the water, the whale would surge up to the surface, sometimes catching a free meal of his own.
…Within a few months, the whale’s younger half brother adopted the practice. Eventually the behavior spread and now five Marineland whales supplement their diet with fresh fowl, the scientist said.
September 19th, 2005 at 8:37 am
“Hey! Whatcha doing?” Fernando the Whale asked, swimming up beside his friend, Carlton.
“Watch,” Carlton mumbled, swimming up to just touch the underside of the surface. With an impressive blorking sound, he spit out a large wad of half-chewed fish. “Now wait.”
A few minutes later, there was a horrendous splashing above them as several pairs of small orange feet appeared amidst the floating spew. Carlton surged up, mouth open wide, and dived again deep with a mischevious twinkle in his eye and the back leg of a seagull trailing from the corner of his mouth.
“What the hell, why not?” Fernando shrugged, waited for the feet to return, and copied suit.
Down deep, he caught up to Carlton just as the larger whale spit loose a handful of bones. He finished his own, a small trail of feathers wafting in the currents behind them.
“So, what’dya think?” Carlton asked.
Fernando shrugged, thought about it for a minute. “Tastes kinda like chicken,” he said at last.