Scientists have published findings confirming that killer whales hunt great white sharks, after the marine mammal was caught on camera killing one of the world’s largest marine predators.
A pod of killer whales is seen chasing sharks during an hour-long chase in Mossel Bay, a port city in the southern Western Cape province, in helicopter and drone footage that informed a scientific study published this week .
Alison Towner, a shark scientist at the Academy of Marine Dynamics in Gansbaai, South Africa and lead author of the study, said: “This behavior has never been seen in detail before, and certainly never from the air “.
A clip of the footage, taken in May, shows five killer whales chasing and killing a great white and scientists believe three more were mauled during the hunt.
Simon Elwen, a marine mammal specialist and co-author of the study, said: “Orcas are highly intelligent and social animals. Their group hunting methods make them incredibly effective predators.”
Killer whales, the ocean’s apex predator, are known to feed on other shark species, but evidence of attacks on great whites was previously limited. The study did not look at the reasons for the behavior.
One of the whales is known to have attacked great white sharks before, but the other four have not. The authors said this suggested the practice was spreading, as previous studies had established that black and white animals can learn from each other through “cultural transmission”.
The sharks disappeared from the area after the attack, leaving only a large white patch in the next 45 days, according to the paper, which was published in the journal Ecology. The authors say this confirms that sharks have a flight response and could have wider implications.
In previously observed cases, the animals ended up abandoning former key habitats, with consequences for the ecosystem and shark-related tourism, said Alison Kock, a marine biologist at South Africa’s National Parks.