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In two separate incidents, lone orcas were seen killing great white sharks. The incidents are remarkable because orcas usually hunt in pods. (Image: Reuters/Representative)
This is the first time lone orcas were spotted killing sharks, which is the largest predatory fish in the seas. Orcas generally hunt in pods.
A smash and grab attack by an orca, also called killer whale, where it attacked and killed a great white shark and ate its liver and then sped off has left scientists and marine biologists stunned.
The incident where the orca killed the great white shark occurred off the coast of Mossel Bay in South Africa and it offers new insights into the predatory behaviour of orcas. Researchers believe that this is the first time they documented an orca singularly killing a great white shark. This incident happened in 2023.
A separate report by the National Geographic also documented a 60-year-old orca killing a great white shark. Scientists believe it is the first time an orca has been filmed killing a great white shark.
Orcas have been documented hunting sharks, dolphins and even whales solo but this is the first time a lone orca has hunted down the world’s largest predatory fish.
“Killer whales, or orcas, usually team up when they hunt, although they can hunt solitarily. The unusual aspect was witnessing Starboard, the killer whale, hunting a white shark alone and in a remarkably rapid timeframe,” Dr Alison Towner, of Rhodes University, who led research into the discovery was quoted as saying by news agency The Guardian.
The events were documented in the African Journal of Marine Science.
The researchers were documenting Starboard and another killer whale known as Port for quite some time. They said as they were following the pair after they smelled shark liver and the sight of diving kelp gulls.
Starboard “gripped the left pectoral fin of the shark and thrust forward with the shark several times before eventually eviscerating it”. Minutes later the killer whale drifted away with “a bloody piece of peach-coloured liver in its mouth”.
Researchers and tourists onboard another vessel that had been involved in shark cage diving activities also documented the incident.
The great white shark, albeit young, was 2.5 metres in length and weighed about 100kg. The great white sharks, when fully grown, can grow to 6.5 metres and 2.5 tonnes.
Orcas are dolphins but because of their size they are called killer whales. Whales and dolphins and porpoises are part of the animal group known as Cetacea and are called cetaceans. Hence, they are the largest species of marine dolphin.
Both whales and dolphins are ocean mammals and sharks, meanwhile, are fishes.
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