A titanic tussle of apex predators has been caught on camera showing a killer whale hunting down and killing a great white shark to eat its liver.
In a scene that might conjure up images of the killer Hannibal Lecter from the film Silence of the Lambs, the massive mammal relentlessly chased the huge fish to munch on its vital organ.
The liver of sharks are famed for their incredible nutritional value and regenerative properties, making them a prize morsel for the larger more powerful whale to seek out.
As this video shows, a male orca Starboard began to chase off the coast of South Africa having spotted a juvenile great white shark.
Biologist Dr Alison Towner, from Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, told the BBC Starboard’s attack was “solo and swift” and over in just under two minutes.
She said Starboard, along with another whale named Port, had developed a taste for great white livers and had become experts at hunting them solo.
She said the orcas “exhibited a predilection for extracting and consuming the sharks’ livers” and that “during the attacks, the sharks would tightly circle the killer whales, in a desperate attempt to avoid predation.”
Marine mammal scientist Dr Luke Rendell, from the University of St Andrews told the BBC it was “interesting” the orcas hunted alone rather than in packs.
He added: “A great white shark is a nice, big concentration of food, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that some populations [of orcas], where these sharks occur in sufficient numbers, have learned to exploit that.”
In the wild orcas are highly intelligent apex predators, with males growing up to 26 feet long and weighing around six tonnes, about half the amount of a double decker bus.
Killer whales often hunt in packs and have been known to kill sharks, as well as other larger whales. They have also been shown to have extraordinary brain power, for example when hunting seals in the polar regions they swim to produce waves to wash knock their prey off from taking refuge on small icebergs.
In great white sharks females grow larger than males, with the biggest specimens reaching 16 feet in length and weighing over two tonnes.
