Scientists recently released the first aerial video of a great white shark hunting by a pod of orcas off the coast of South Africa.
A still from the Discovery video showing orcas hunting great white sharks in South Africa. (Photo: Discovery).
A pod of orcas was observed chasing sharks during a one-hour hunt off Mossel Bay, a coastal town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The video, filmed using a helicopter and drones, was released this week as part of a study, the Guardian reported on October 5.
Alison Towner, a shark scientist at the Marine Dynamics Academy in Gansbaai, South Africa, and the lead author of the study, stated: “This behavior has never been documented in such detail before, and there has been no aerial footage of such an event.”
A segment from the video, filmed in May, shows five orcas hunting a great white shark. Scientists believe that three more sharks may have been killed during the hunt.
Simon Elwen, a marine mammal specialist and co-author of the study, commented: “Orcas are highly social and intelligent animals. Their group hunting methods make these hunts extremely effective.”
Orcas are typically observed hunting other shark species, and evidence of them hunting great whites is very limited.
One of the five orcas in the video had previously been seen attacking great white sharks, but there have been no recorded observations of such behavior in the other four.
According to the research published in the journal Ecology, sharks disappeared from the area following the attack. Within 45 days, only one great white shark was sighted in the region.
The authors noted that the sharks in the area reacted to the predator by fleeing, which could have a widespread impact on the ecosystem.
Alison Kock, a marine biologist at South African National Parks, mentioned that there have been previous instances of sharks abandoning their critical habitats, leading to negative impacts on the ecosystem and shark-related tourism.
