Orcas can get organized. When hunting for whale sharks — the world’s largest fish — a pod of killer whales appears to target the youngest most vulnerable sharks, ram them to turn them upside done — thus immobilizing them, and will then focus on high value organs like the heart and liver.
Although there have been scattered reports of such incidents, scientists in Mexico recorded and studied four specific attacks, analyzed them, and described them in an article in Frontiers in Marine Science. Orcas have also been recorded hunting great white sharks solo. The article documents what appears to be systematic, coordinated attacks.
“We show how orcas displayed a collaboratively hunting technique on whale sharks, characterized by focusing on attacking the pelvic area causing the whale shark to bleed out and allow orcas access to the lipid-rich liver,” Erick Higuera Rivas, a marine biologist at Conexiones Terramar and an author of the article said in a press release. “When hunting, all pod members work together, hitting the whale shark to turn it upside down.”
