A Scot has captured the dramatic moment a pod of killer whales chased a terrified seal onto rocks near the town of Lerwick.
Haydn Thomason, 27, was filming the orcas just by the coast at Greenhead on Shetland, when they suddenly began chasing the lone seal.
The student, who also founded and runs Viking Fitness Training, explained that though he is lucky to have seen the magnificent creatures more than a few times living in Shetland, this was the first time he'd seen them this close.
Haydn said: "That is the first time I’ve been metres away from them, especially when they are hunting.
"I’ve seen them a few times this Summer, but I’ve never been lucky enough to watch them hunt.
"They frequently visit Shetland and seem to be coming here a lot more often now."
The fitness guru reckons there were at least 10 animals in the pod, including the large bull who at one point flipped a seal out the water with its tail.
He added: "Luckily we have a Facebook group dedicated to seeing these animals called Shetland Orca sightings, so once my mum Lara who is a local tour guide for www.shetlandtourguide.co.uk spotted the post showing they were there, I immediately rushed across town to follow them.
"We ended up tracking them for about an hour along the coastline of Shetland, causing a convoy of cars following them too.
"As we were following the pod, we realised that they were hunting seals along the coastline, which is an animal we see so commonly here in Shetland.
"I was so lucky to get the footage I did and see the pod in full hunt mode, it’s something you’d rarely see - let alone capture on camera.
"I feel like I’ve only ever seen footage like this on nature documentaries."
Once he'd caught the footage, Haydn shared it on the local orca spotting Facebook page where it's had over 1,100 likes, with fans of the animal flocking to describe his footage as "amazing".
And answering the question everyone wanted to know the answer to, Haydn revealed: "Much to everyone’s delight, the herd of seals managed to get away – at least that’s what we hope."
