Researchers in Mexico have captured rare video evidence of orcas hunting great white sharks and removing only their livers with remarkable precision. The footage, recorded in the Gulf of California during two separate events in 2020 and 2022, shows the whales flipping young sharks upside down, stunning them, and slicing into their bodies to extract the fatty organ.
The study, published Monday in Frontiers in Marine Science, offers some of the clearest proof yet that killer whales can overpower great white sharks, long considered the ocean's top predator. The rest of the shark's body is left to sink untouched.
Scientists say the liver is the only part that whales want because it is rich in fat and energy and can make up about one-quarter of a shark's total body mass. The organ serves as a fuel reserve, which may explain why the orcas ignore everything else.
In one of the videos, all members of the pod take turns feeding on the shark's pink liver while a sea lion lingers nearby. The orcas blow bubbles toward the animal, a move that appears to keep it from stealing leftovers.
Marine biologist and filmmaker Erick Higuera filmed the hunts from a nearby boat. He said he did not realize the full importance of the footage until he reviewed it later. The shark's liver was already hanging from its side in the video.
Minutes later, the orcas surfaced carrying the organ in their mouths. Higuera, who later became a coauthor of the study, said he was shocked to learn the prey was a great white shark.
The whales belong to a group known as the "Moctezuma pod," which has been tracked off Baja California for more than a decade. Higuera said the pod appears to hunt only sharks and rays and changes its technique depending on the species targeted.
A 60-year-old grandmother killer whale named Sophia battling in what scientists believe is the first time a single orca was captured on camera killing a great white shark.
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Until now, the only confirmed cases of orcas hunting great whites came from South Africa. There, two adult male orcas -- nicknamed Port and Starboard -- have been killing adult sharks and removing their livers for years. In Mexico, however, the orcas are targeting younger sharks, suggesting the behavior developed independently.
Marine biologist Alison Towner of Rhodes University said the different handling methods show that each orca group likely learned the tactic on its own.
Francesca Pancaldi, a coauthor of the study, said the whales gain control by flipping the shark upside down, forcing it into tonic immobility -- a frozen, catatonic state that leaves the shark unable to fight back.
Researchers believe the behavior is not new. What is new is the ability to document it. Drone cameras now allow scientists to film open-ocean hunts that were once impossible to observe. Pancaldi said warming linked to climate patterns such as El Niño may be bringing more great whites into orca territory in the Gulf of California.
In South Africa, the same hunting pattern caused great whites to abandon key feeding grounds. Cape fur seal and sevengill shark numbers rose, which led to a drop in the smaller fish they eat. Towner warned that Mexico could face a similar ecological shift if the behavior spreads or becomes more frequent.