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[CyberPanda]

In 2009, the team tagged 17 great whites, which spent months circling Southeast Farallon Island and picking off the local elephant seals. But this period of steady hunting ended on November 2, when two pods of killer whales (orcas) swam past the islands in the early afternoon. In the space of eight hours, all 17 great whites abruptly disappeared. They weren’t dead; their tags were eventually detected in distant waters. They had just fled from Farallon. And for at least a month, most of them didn’t return.

Jorgensen wondered if this was a one-off, but the tags recorded similar examples in later years—orcas arrive, and sharks skedaddle. Some orcas also hunt seals, so it’s possible the sharks are just trying to avoid competition—but that seems improbable given how quickly they bolt. The more likely explanation is that the biggest, baddest shark in the world is terrified of orcas.

Killer whales have a friendlier image than white sharks. But orcas are “potentially the more dangerous predator,” says Toby Daly-Engel. “They have a lot of social behaviors that sharks do not, which allows them to hunt effectively in groups, communicate among themselves, and teach their young.”

Combining both brains and brawn, orcas have been known to kill sharks in surprisingly complicated ways. Some will drive their prey to the surface and then karate-chop them with overhead tail swipes. Others seem to have worked out that they can hold sharks upside-down to induce a paralytic state called tonic immobility. Orcas can kill the fastest species (makos) and the largest (whale sharks). And when they encounter great whites, a few recorded cases suggest that these encounters end very badly for the sharks.

In October 1997, fishing vessels near Southeast Farallon Island observed a young white shark interrupting a pair of orcas that were eating a sea lion. One of the whales rammed and killed the shark, and the duo proceeded to eat its liver. More recently, after orcas had passed by a South African beach, five great white carcasses washed ashore. All were, suspiciously, missing their livers.

Rather than ripping their prey apart, it seems that orcas can extract livers with surprising finesse, despite lacking arms and hands. No one has observed their technique, but the wounds on otherwise intact carcasses suggest that they bite their victims near their pectoral fins and then squeeze the livers out through the wounds. “It’s like squeezing toothpaste,” Jorgensen says.

“We think of white sharks as these great ocean predators, but their bag of tricks includes knowing when to pack it in,” Jorgensen says. “That play might have contributed to their longstanding success.”

Or, in other words: Run away, doo doo doo doo doo doo, run away, doo doo doo doo doo doo, run away, doo doo doo doo doo doo, run away.

The Predator That Makes Great White Sharks Flee in Fear

Better to run than to have your liver squeezed out.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[Kadayi]

 

[Weilthain]

Brains and brawn is a good description of Orcas. They are clearly very, very intelligent. Sharks are awesome but do come across as a little derpy. Makes total sense that they would flee.

 

[AaronB]

I once went on a sea life-watching cruise around the bay in Monterrey, California, and we saw nothing for most of the trip. Then just as we were about to head back in, we saw a couple of orcas. Everything else was probably as far away from them as they could manage.

 

[synchronicity]

Brains and brawn is a good description of Orcas. They are clearly very, very intelligent. Sharks are awesome but do come across as a little derpy. Makes total sense that they would flee.

Sometimes you just have to be smart enough to know that you are dumb.

 

[JimiNutz]

Makes sense that a mammal would rule the sea. As much as I like sharks they're fish at the end of the day and fish are full of derp.

 

[One Eyed Willy]

What year is this? All of the above was pretty much in most orca/white shark videos for the last 10 years.

 

[highrider]

 

[noonespecial]

Yes, orcas are absolutely badass and much more terrifying than great white sharks although people don't seem to know that. It reminds me how most people don't seem to know that hippos are probably the most dangerous of all the large animals in Africa (yes, including lions). Orcas and hippos, don't f*** around.

 

[iconmaster]

There is no species of sea creature, however large or dangerous, that a pack of orcas can’t take down. That’s pretty amazing.

 

[Rentahamster]

 

[lock2k]

Orcas are fantastic. They're the coolest of the delphinidae in my opinion. They're huge badass dolphins that are seen as whales and the legends say their skeletons inspired Dragons.

 

[lock2k]

Yes, orcas are absolutely badass and much more terrifying than great white sharks although people don't seem to know that. It reminds me how most people don't seem to know that hippos are probably the most dangerous of all the large animals in Africa (yes, including lions). Orcas and hippos, don't f*** around.

Also, don't forget that Orcas and Hippos are distant cousins

 

[Halo is Back]

Don’t fuck with Orcas. Reminds me when they killed the trainer at sea world they purposefully dragged her down the bottom multiple times, they were torturing the poor girl

 

[Pejo]

Orcas are my favorite animal on earth. So smart and fascinating.

Also, my favorite bit from this great white hunting thing - they tracked a shark after the orcas started hunting @ Farallon islands(Near San Francisco). After it sensed the orcas in the area, it dropped down to like 500 meters (way lower than sharks swim) and swam all the way to fucking Hawaii to get out of there. (if I'm remembering this correctly). Fascinating stuff.

*edit* Yea it's on wikipedia in the "Natural Threats" section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_white_shark#Natural_threats