this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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A pod of orcas has twice been observed flipping young great white sharks on their backsides to stun them, then slicing their sides open.

Some orcas have a taste for liver — specifically, the livers of great white sharks.

Videos taken by scientists in Mexico reveal how the crafty whales manage to snag bites of the apex predators’ fatty organs.

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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[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

this whole liver hunting thing is relatively new.

As far as we know

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 1 points 13 minutes 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