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Scientists have recently captured stunning images showcasing orcas employing specialized techniques to hunt great white sharks.
This particular pod of orcas has been observed in the Gulf of California, where they are known to target younger great white sharks.
Until now, orcas hunting sharks had primarily been documented around South Africa, where they typically pursued larger adult sharks.
The Gulf of California group, known as Moctezuma’s pod, has developed its own unique hunting strategies.
These orcas are known to flip the sharks upside down, which induces a temporary paralysis, allowing them to consume the sharks’ livers—a nutrient-rich source of energy.
“This behaviour is a testament to orcas’ advanced intelligence, strategic thinking, and sophisticated social learning, as the hunting techniques are passed down through generations within their pods.”
The scientists spotted two hunts, killing three white sharks, during routine monitoring of the orcas.
During the first hunt, in August 2020, five orcas were seen pursuing a juvenile white shark.
They pushed it to the surface and worked together to turn it upside down.
Ultimately, they took it underwater and reappeared with the shark’s liver in their mouths.
Shortly afterwards, they did the same with a second juvenile shark.
A second hunt, witnessed in August 2022, followed a similar pattern: five orcas pushed a juvenile white shark onto its back and up to the surface.
The shark was bleeding from its gills, and its liver was visible. The orcas were seen eating it.
Turning a shark upside down like that induces a state called tonic immobility, by changing the shark’s awareness of its surroundings in a way that paralyses it.
“This temporary state renders the shark defenceless, allowing the orcas to extract its nutrient-rich liver and likely consume other organs as well, before abandoning the rest of the carcass,” Higuera said.
By looking at the sharks’ injuries, scientists think that orcas could have developed a specialised technique to induce this state which minimises the chances of being bitten.
“This is the first time we are seeing orcas repeatedly target juvenile white sharks,” said Dr Salvador Jorgensen of California State University, an author of the article.
“Adult white sharks react quickly to hunting orcas, completely evacuating their seasonal gathering areas and not returning for months.
“But these juvenile white sharks may be naive to orcas. We just don’t know yet whether white shark anti-predator flight responses are instinctual or need to be learned.”