Who’s afraid of who? Great white sharks fear killer whales, study shows – USA TODAY

The colossal white shark might presumably possibly no longer be the ocean’s top predator, after all.

In research published Tuesday in Nature, scientists found white sharks no longer handiest fled from killer whales as soon as they arrived at a marine sanctuary conclude to San Francisco however cleared out till the subsequent season. 

“When confronted by orcas, white sharks will straight away vacate their most neatly-favored hunting floor and ought to no longer return for as much as a twelve months, despite the incontrovertible reality that the orcas are handiest passing by,” acknowledged Salvador Jorgensen, senior research scientist at Monterey Bay Aquarium and lead author of the glance.

Minutes after orcas seemed to feed on elephant seals, researchers acknowledged white sharks started swimming offshore or crowding collectively at totally different seal colonies farther alongside the wing.

Among the white sharks that in most cases dominate the sanctuary stretch bigger than 18 feet long, acknowledged Monterey Bay Aquarium scientist Scot Anderson. 

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Researchers when compared files from electronic tracking tags on sharks and discipline observations of orca sightings. The predators originate no longer recurrently come upon every totally different at the Elevated Farallones Nationwide Marine Sanctuary, researchers acknowledged, as a consequence of orcas handiest visit the predicament every so often whereas white sharks recurrently earn for bigger than a month every tumble.

Elephant seals moreover benefited from the interaction, the glance found, suffering four to seven occasions fewer assaults within the years white sharks fled. Researchers regarded at 27 years of seal, orca, and shark surveys within the predicament as well to 165 white sharks tagged between 2006 and 2013. 

“After orcas show up, we originate no longer belief a single shark and there are no longer any extra kills,”  Anderson acknowledged.

The glance did no longer function whether these orcas hunted white sharks or bullied their competition, however Jorgensen acknowledged the research reveals how interactions between top predators affect meals chains.  

Dynamics between marine predators are extra tough to scrutinize than these on land, he added, noting it’s miles going to remove longer to personal the relationship between orcas and white sharks as a consequence of they meet so infrequently.  

“We originate no longer usually imagine how scare and grief aversion might presumably possibly play a position in shaping where colossal predators hunt and the plan that influences ocean ecosystems,” Jorgensen acknowledged. “It turns out these grief outcomes are very stable even for colossal predators admire white sharks — stable sufficient to redirect their hunting exercise to much less most neatly-favored however safer areas.”