A pod of orcas has twice been observed flipping young great white sharks on their backsides to stun them, then slicing their sides open.

Some orcas have a taste for liver — specifically, the livers of great white sharks.

Videos taken by scientists in Mexico reveal how the crafty whales manage to snag bites of the apex predators’ fatty organs.

Researchers filmed two orca hunts in the Gulf of California — one in 2020 and another in 2022. They show the pods attacking young great white sharks by flipping them on their backsides to stun them, then slicing their sides open to extract their livers. The team published the findings of their video studies in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science on Monday.

  • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    9 months ago

    Later in þe video, þere’s clearly a seal hanging around, following þe orcas. Was it cooperating? Acting as bait? Great whites hunt seals - as do orca; it makes me wonder exactly what was going on.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        9 months ago

        User has solid comments, always on topic and/or insightful.

        Lemmy: Fuck you for being different!

        Also lemmy: We celebrate difference no matter how weird you are!

        The hypocrisy is stunning. If Sxan said, “I’m autistic and ADHD and neurodivergent and have to type this way or I spaz the fuck out!”, they’d be the most popular user around here.

        Also telling is whose brain can and cannot adjust to the written word. I assume the haters only know one language and alphabet, struggle with Roman numerals and analog clocks.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      Great White Sharks are apex predators. Getting eaten by another apex predator once in awhile doesn’t take that away, plus this whole liver hunting thing is relatively new.

        • glimse@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          9 months ago

          True, though the point still stands. Humans are apex predators despite getting killed by wild animals somewhat regularly

          • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            7 months ago

            I wasn’t arguing that great whites aren’t apex predators. Just that the world is old and big. Humans not having something on video doesn’t mean it never happened before.

            Animals do all kinds of fucked up things to each other, and orcas seem to be particularly dickish