Blood pooling in the deep , frothy waters off Western Australia alerted researchers to a grim scene unfolding before their eyes back in 2019 . forrader , they go out a fuel pod of killer whales attacking a blue whale , stripping it of flesh and exposing osseous tissue until eventually , the carcase go down . While such a bloody death may be hard for some to brook , the remarkable behavior on the part of the orca cod exemplify a important one : the first - ever immortalize instance of killer whale bringing down Earth ’s declamatory animal .
Curious as to whether or not the ambitious hunt was a trematode ( excuse the wordplay ) , the team led by Cetacean Research Centre ( CETREC WA ) continued supervise the pod to see if they would do it again . Just a fortnight later , they did , this time forming a gang of many of the same member from the first onslaught and hunting and pop a blue heavyweight calfskin . Then in 2021 , they were at it again pour down yet another calf . The homicidal talent of orcas has now been release in the journalMarine Mammal Science .
As telling apex predators that take on shark ( sometimesslicing out the liver ) andseveral whale metal money , it was already known that orcas were ambitious and skilled hunters . However , prior to the sighting in 2019 nobody was quite indisputable if they were up to of killing blue hulk , which as the largest animate being that has ever lived can be over33 meter ( 110 feet)long .
Orcas harassing and attacking blasphemous giant was n’t just news either , but researchers from Flinders University in Australia , say these three predation events are the first sustain kills . At just7 - 10 meter ( 23 to 32 feet)in distance , it might seem like a gargantuan task for an orca , but these animals move in pods , sometimes come near 100 members .
Orcas are also highly social andintelligent animalscapable of complex communicating , entail they are able tosynchronize attacksfor the best resultant . The grueling process of taking down Earth ’s largest mammal makes for difficult indication but is undeniably an telling exploit for a grouping of marine predators .
“ At arriver we already find a real flesh wound on the top of its head with bone exposed , ” say Colorado - generator and Flinders University PhD Candidate Isabella Reeves in a statement mail to IFLScience . “ The dorsal fin was missing , no doubt bitten off by the cause of death whales . ”
“ Soon after , there was enceinte chunks of pelt and fatness stripped off the side of the hulk , the blue was phlebotomize abundantly and was counteract , evident by its slow speed … Close to the end , a female animal lunged headfirst into the blue ’s mouth , presumptively to flow on the tongue , the whale weakened more and we did not see the carcass again . ”
RIP , Big Blue .
