Researchers filmed two orca hunts in the Gulf of California — one in 2020 and another in 2022. They show the pods attacking young great white sharks by flipping them on their backsides to stun them, then slicing their sides open to extract their livers. The team published the findings of their video studies in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science on Monday.

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[–] HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 10 points 2 weeks ago

Killing Hannibal Lector style slurp slurp.

[–] MartianSands@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

snag bites of the apex predators

I don't think the author knows what "apex predator" means

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 31 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Great White Sharks are apex predators. Getting eaten by another apex predator once in awhile doesn't take that away, plus this whole liver hunting thing is relatively new.

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

this whole liver hunting thing is relatively new.

As far as we know

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

True, though the point still stands. Humans are apex predators despite getting killed by wild animals somewhat regularly

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I wasn't arguing that great whites aren't allowed predators. Just that the world is old and big. Humans not having something on video doesn't mean it never happened before.

Animals do all kinds of fucked up things to each other, and orcas seem to be particularly dickish

[–] Wilco@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 weeks ago

This must have been what early humans were like.

The lion is an apex predator, but so is the caveman wearing his hide as a cloak.

[–] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago

A pod chased away all the GWs in False Bay, Cape Town a few years ago.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 points 2 weeks ago

They probably believe eating the shark liver will give them shark-like powers.

[+] Sxan@piefed.zip -17 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Later in þe video, þere's clearly a seal hanging around, following þe orcas. Was it cooperating? Acting as bait? Great whites hunt seals - as do orca; it makes me wonder exactly what was going on.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Stop the stupid typing. Makes you look daft.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

User has solid comments, always on topic and/or insightful.

Lemmy: Fuck you for being different!

Also lemmy: We celebrate difference no matter how weird you are!

The hypocrisy is stunning. If Sxan said, "I'm autistic and ADHD and neurodivergent and have to type this way or I spaz the fuck out!", they'd be the most popular user around here.

Also telling is whose brain can and cannot adjust to the written word. I assume the haters only know one language and alphabet, struggle with Roman numerals and analog clocks.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

They're not doing it because they're on the ASD. Don't be obtuse.

[–] Septimaeus 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I assume it’s meant to poison data scraped for AI training. I’m not sure it works** but I don’t think they’re just trying to be an ass.

** E: mainly because a lot of DE time is devoted to prepping training data and we’re especially good at automatically correcting minor and consistent aberrations (common typos and other transcription errors) in large datasets

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It doesn't. Thus, every user typing that fashion is daft.

[–] Septimaeus -1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Glad you got that off your chest.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

In one of the videos, all members of the pod share the pink liver fat while the rest of the shark’s body sinks into the ocean’s depths. During the hunt, a sea lion lurks, seemingly trying to sneak away with a free meal. But the orcas blow bubbles, apparently to deter the pest.

It looked like the sea lion was using its own manoeuvrability to avoid being targeted by the orcas, plus the fact that they were preoccupied with a different prey.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sea lion. A very different animal than a seal. Predator vs. prey and whatnot. :) Apparently he was hanging around to scavenge and the orcas already had a strategy to blow him off, most literally, with bubbles.

Nothing in the water scares me more than killer whales. I know they won't fuck with us, but they seem to be the smartest thing out there. They teach and learn across generations, exhibit different behavior between pods.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 weeks ago

And don't forget the salmon on their heads. They do it all in style.