First Evidence of Orcas Hunting and Eating Great White Sharks Seen in Drone Footage
Frequent readers of CNET Science will remember Port and Starboard, the duo of killer whales from a story we published in June, which detailed research showing great white sharks were being hunted by the whales off the coast of South Africa. New aerial footage, released on Monday, shows one member of the murderous pair — Starboard — actually making a kill.
The footage was released on YouTube as part of a new study, led by Alison Towner, published on Oct. 3 in the journal Ecology. Towner also led the earlier study which used tracking and sensor data to show the great white sightings had plummeted as the killer whales moved in. The researchers hypothesized, from evidence found on shark carcasses, that killer whales were hunting the great whites and any surviving sharks had quite literally been scared away from the area.
The new aerial footage, captured by a private drone operator and a helicopter pilot’s Samsung S21, seems to confirm this and is the first direct evidence of orcas killing and eating great white sharks. It was captured in May at Mossel Bay, South Africa, and some footage had previously been released via the Discovery Channel.
“This behavior has never been witnessed in detail before, and certainly never from the air,” said Towner, who works as a senior shark scientist at Marine Dynamics Academy in Gansbaai, South Africa.
The photographs and video show some interesting maneuvers — the researchers believe the whales are potentially homing in on the