Great white sharks are visited by a large number of tourists every year in Falls Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, and in 2015, five great white shark carcasses appeared on the beaches of the bay, and great white sharks have not been seen in the area since.
In order to save the tourism industry, local animal experts were brought in to investigate the cause, and after observing the carcasses of sharks, experts believed that killer whales drove away great white sharks.
The carcass of the great white shark is intact, not like illegal hunting by humans, and there is a wound of about 30 cm on its abdomen, and the liver inside is missing, which is very in line with the killer whale crime style.
And in the ocean, only killer whales can prey on great white sharks, but why do killer whales only eat the liver of great white sharks?
Killer whales and great white sharks are both top predators of the ocean, but killer whales have an advantage over sharks in every way.
Killer whales are larger. Great white sharks can grow up to 6 meters and weigh more than two tons. Killer whales can grow up to 9.75 meters and weigh more than 9.5 tons, and sharks do not have any advantage in size.
Killer whales have a higher IQ. Great white sharks are considered to have a high IQ among fish, about 3 years old for humans, but they are not enough to compare with killer whales.
Scientists once dissected a 430-kilogram great white shark and found that its brain was only 35 grams, accounting for only 0.008% of its weight. Adult killer whales have a brain capacity of about 7 kilograms and an IQ equivalent to that of a 15-year-old human.
Killer whales have a numerical advantage. Great white sharks breathe with their gills, swimming to get seawater into their gills, and then filtering oxygen or exchanging gas through the capillaries inside.
Great white sharks do not need to surface for ventilation, but need to swim constantly to breathe, so great white sharks swim around regularly and are considered solitary animals, and will gather somewhere during the mating season.
Killer whales are highly social social animals, they hunt and live in groups, not only can maintain a high degree of unity and cooperation, but also evolve a unique language system to maintain communication.
Killer whales are a "talker" when hunting, and zoologists say they are doing tactical communication or mentoring juniors, and most of them are spraying "teammates" for lack of force.
Killer whales are very high-profile behavior, which is likely to cause trouble, and the old humpback whales will rush over to sabotage the killer whale hunt after hearing this, and beat the killer whale if it is not good.
In addition, great white sharks have the advantage of being sensitive to smell, and if you drop a drop of blood on the beach, great white sharks can smell blood from a few kilometers away. However, great white sharks generally do not attack humans, and there are no more than 7 cases of great white sharks attacking people per year.
Great white sharks will not appear on the beach in groups like in the movie, they are monsters that attack people, in reality they are just a dish for humans, and can only survive under the protection of the law.
Great white sharks have relatively good teeth, about 300 triangular teeth, the edges of the teeth are sharp and jagged, and with a bite force of up to 400 kg, it can easily tear up its prey.
And after its teeth are damaged and fall out, the subsequent teeth will be moved forward to fill, and it is said that a great white shark can replace thousands of teeth in a lifetime.
However, the advantages of great white sharks do not work for killer whales, after all, killer whales are larger, have a higher IQ, and are still fighting as a team, and great white sharks only have to run.
Great white sharks also have an Achilles' heel. If the belly of the great white shark is facing up, their brain will secrete a serotonin, causing the great white shark to quickly fall into a "tonic static state", motionless and defenseless.
This state is similar to other animals, such as holding the neck of the kitten, the cat will lose its resistance. For example, if the chicken's neck is put under its wings, the chicken will also fall into a hypnotic state.
Smart killer whales have mastered this weakness of great white sharks, and the hunting method is very simple, first one rushes to overturn the great white shark, and then another killer whale bites the fins of the great white shark, and the great white shark loses its resistance after more than 10 seconds.
However, killer whales only eat the liver of great white sharks, and will directly discard shark carcasses, and here it must be criticized that killer whales like to waste food, they prey on bowhead whales of more than 10 tons, and usually only eat liver and tongue.
Why do killer whales love shark liver so much and abandon shark meat?
Because fish liver is rich in various trace elements and has a delicate taste, don't look at the majesty of killer whales when hunting, in fact, their teeth are not very good.
Like most mammals, killer whales only have teeth replaced once in a lifetime, and it has a lifespan of more than 80 years, so in order to reduce the wear and tear of teeth, it prefers delicate food.
And the great white shark urinates through the skin, the content of fat is relatively high, and it tastes very fishy, and the killer whale, as a high-IQ inferior animal, has a very picky recipe, naturally does not look at the fish meat of the great white shark.
However, the carcass of the great white shark will not be wasted, in the sinking into the sea will be eaten clean by small fish and shrimp, under the laws of evolution of nature, death also represents novices, great white shark carcasses can feed many creatures.
As the saying goes, "a shark loses all life".