Orca Attacks a Whale Shark with Surgical Precision By Removing Its Liver

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Things are getting brutal beneath the waves! In the murky waters, you can just about make out an orca attacking a whale shark. The accomplished hunter is targeting exactly what it wants from this carcass. Click below to see the full extraordinary footage!

What Do Orcas Normally Eat?

Orcas are also known as killer whales and their scientific name is Orcinus orca. They are not a whale at all and are related to dolphins. These animals live in oceans all over the world. Whilst they don’t have any formal migration patterns, they will move around to find food.

This species is a highly successful predator and will feed on a wide variety of prey. By examining gut contents, scientists have established that they eat seals, sea lions, and smaller whales and dolphins. However, they also eat squid, fish, octopuses, and sharks –  as we see in this clip. Orca often hunt as a group and use sophisticated communication to coordinate their hunting strategy. As a result, they can tackle animals that are larger than themselves, including some larger species of whales.

Why Do Orcas Rip Out Livers?

In this footage, the orca is ripping out the liver of the whale shark. This is not unusual behavior for orcas. They have a reputation for catching multiple sharks in one day and cutting out the livers. This is quite wasteful behavior for a predator because the rest of the carcass is left to rot. They have been spotted using the same strategy on baleen whales off the coast of Australia. Here, sailors in the 1800s often came across whale carcasses that were missing the tongue. Dead sharks are sometimes washed up on South African beaches with their bellies ripped open and their livers missing!

Experts suspect that this feeding behavior offers the orca the most nutritious parts of the carcass without having to go to the effort to cut up the remainder. However, there could be other subtle reasons that we have not yet discovered. It has even been suggested that they may be experiencing a craving for a certain type of food because they haven’t eaten it for a while.

Some terrestrial predators such as wolves have also shown a preference for certain body parts. For example, wolves have been seen targeting the intestines of deer. Also, black and brown bears often eat just the brain and roe of salmon. They only do this, however, when there is plenty of salmon available. When prey is less abundant, they eat the whole thing!