Here’s the Backstory on that Incredible Video of Orcas Following a Swimmer (with Extra Footage)

Maybe you saw the video we posted yesterday showing a pod of curious orcas (aka killer whales) following a lone swimmer off the coast of New Zealand. The amazing aerial video, which was shot by Dylan Brayshaw using a drone, quickly went viral and now Brayshaw has posted another video (embedded below) where he explains the fascinating backstory on the clip.

“So, you’ve seen my killer whale video of the killer whales coming up and playing with the swimmer at Hahei Beach. Now I’m just going to give you a backstory on what happened that day,” Brayshaw says in the new video. “I was rocking my son to sleep at our caravan site at the caravan park at Hahei Beach when I noticed in the cove, there was something in the water. I thought they were seals, but then I saw some black sort of fins, and I kept walking up and down, trying to get my son to sleep. And then I saw these dolphins, or what I thought were dolphins, coming up the beach, and then I saw a bigger fin and thought, wow, those aren’t dolphins those are orcas.”

Next Brayshaw spotted the lone swimmer who was swimming along the shore directly towards the orcas. The ocras circled her and gave her “quite the fright,” so she decided to get out of the water.

But then, having a change of heart, the swimmer went back into the water to continue swimming, which is when Brayshaw decided to launch his DJI Mavic Pro 2 drone and captured the beautiful and heart-stopping video we shared yesterday.

If you haven’t seen that clip, watch it first and then check out the below video, which includes extra aerial drone footage of the orcas following the swimmer.

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