There's nothing to fear when you're an apex predator, right? This population of great whites hasn't been so lucky.
Since 2017, a pair of male orcas have slaughtered at least eight great white sharks near the Gansbaai coast, tearing the fearsome fish apart and eating their livers in all but one case. Some of the sharks — which scientists periodically find dead and shredded on nearby beaches — were even missing their hearts.
"What we seem to be witnessing though is a large-scale avoidance strategy, mirroring what we see used by wild dogs in the Serengeti in Tanzania, in response to increased lion presence," lead study author Alison Towner, a senior biologist studying white sharks at the Dyer Island Conservation Trust in South Africa, said in a statement."The more the orcas frequent these sites, the longer the great white sharks stay away.
Like cartoon criminals, the orcas were easily identifiable by their battle scars; one whale's dorsal fin had collapsed to the right, while the other's bent to the left. These features inspired local whale watchers to nickname the orcas Port and Starboard. Nearly as soon as whale watchers spotted the duo at Gansbaai, a great white shark washed up dead on the beach.
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