Orcas are ‘ripping open’ great white sharks for their livers, hearts and testicles – New York Post

It turns out that gargantuan white sharks aren’t at all times the hunter — the dreaded killers of the ocean are prey for orcas.

Autopsies compile been executed on six our bodies of the monster predators which washed up on the hover of South Africa over the years and the consequences indicate the sharks were attacked by killer whales for their nutrient smartly off organs.

Marine biologist Alison Towner helped impression post-mortems on six sharks that washed up on the shores of Gansbaai, and, in an look on the YouTube channel Shark Focus on, hosted by Gemma Care, acknowledged orca pods had “physically ripped originate” the sharks’ skins lawful below the throat in a “precise and subtle” methodology in whisper for the organs to run out. This myth used to be first reported by Newsweek.

There compile been reports of killer whales attacking several species of sharks off the South African hover since 2017 and the deaths were sooner or later linked to 2 killer whales within the utter.

Towner acknowledged the autopsies on the gargantuan whites took hours to impression, with the group meticulously taking measurements from every segment of the shark. “Then in we poke to construct if there are any indicators of trauma that supposed you might presumably reduce designate orca predation,” she told Care. “Any boat accidents, fishing lines…trauma that will’ve been the clarification for death. When the animal is mendacity there with its 60 kilo liver ripped out, it’s reasonably glaring.”

The assaults on the gargantuan white sharks were equal to equal assaults on seven gill sharks within the utter, and Towner added: “Ravishing below the bottom of the pores and skin is the most attractive spot to originate up the shark and entry and extract the liver,” Towner acknowledged. “I scream two of the animals had both the coronary heart removed and one male had his testes removed. Because they’re very halt there within the physique cavity.

“We scream the two killer whales were learning to safe preserve of the pectoral fins. We don’t know evidently. It’s handle a ripping movement. The liver… it’s oily, very slippery, it would naturally run out in sing that they’d presumably device alongside and piece it.”