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Super-fast pilot whales have been observed sprinting after prey, likely to include giant squid.

The rapid pursuit has brought comparisons with the fleet-footed land predator, the cheetah.

The cetaceans even use the same, highly specialised hunting strategy that cheetahs use, scientists report in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

They say it gives the lie to our perception that deep sea whales are slow, energy-saving creatures.

It is the first time such remarkable behaviour - occurring hundreds of metres underwater, in complete darkness - has been recorded.

"As far as we know, no other whale has been recorded to swim nearly as fast at depth," says marine biologist Natacha Aguilar Soto, of La Laguna University in Tenerife, Spain.

"Short-finned pilot whales seem to be the greatest burst-speed athletes of the deep-diving mammals." ...