Gruesome clip shows ‘serial killer’ orcas attack great white and eat its liver
A duo of orcas have been caught on camera attacking a great white shark and eating the defeated apex predator's liver.
For at least five years, the pair of serial killer whales have been slaughtering great whites and eating their livers in South Africa, and now a group of researchers have caught them in the act.
Port and Starboard, as researchers have named the pair of males, have slaughtered eight great whites on the Gansbaai coast since they were first spotted in 2017.
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And scientists added that the pair are just two of a whole group of killer whales terrorising what are supposed to be the ocean's most feared predator.
In the drone and helicopter footage of an hour-long hunt in May, Starboard is observed helping pod-mates attack a great white.
The same whale is then seen eating what is believed to be the shark's liver.
Authors of a new study published on October 3 in the journal Ecology state that the phenomenon hasn't been captured on camera before, and all other instances of sharks being attacked by great whites were deduced from the state of shark carcasses that had washed ashore.
"This behaviour has never been witnessed in detail before, and certainly never from the air," lead study author Alison Towner, a senior shark scientist at Marine Dynamics Academy in Gansbaai, South Africa, said in a statement.
Orcas have previously been observed killing everything from little fish to sea lions, sharks and even blue whales.
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As a response to the attacks from the killer whales the great white sharks of Gansbaai have developed "large-scale avoidance strategies," Towner said.
The researcher said that after a sighting of Port and/or Starboard, individual sharks may leave the area for weeks, even months, at a time.
And because the great white's are ditching the territory they once dominated, the bronze whaler shark has moved in to reap the benefits – despite being prey of the great white.
And while this may sound like a boon for the little guy, the negative effect on the food chain may ripple down with severe consequences, according to the researchers.
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