Killer whale kills great white shark

Demitri Martin has observed that whale watching is often indistinguishable from watching people be disappointed. But not all the time. National Geographic has a short video about a 1997 whale watching excursion when the people got to watch a killer whale take down a great white shark. (Feel free to make heavy metal devil hands at your computer screen at any time while watching this video.)

The really cool thing? To pull off this kill, the whale had to learn a trick about shark anatomy and behavior. Treehugger's Jaymi Heimbuch explains:

According to National Geographic, "To prey upon the shark, the Orca has learned how to immobilize it by turning it on its back -- a state called 'tonic immobility.'" Sharks freeze when rolled onto their backs. And that's exactly the strategy the whale in this film seems to have taken, keeping the shark immobile until it suffocates, then and feeding on it.

If that's not worth a little air guitar in that whale's honor, I don't know what is.

Video Link

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

MORE: animals • badass • Nature • Science • WOAH

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Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

http://twitter.com/ChrisPerriman Chris Perriman

Apparently the uploader doesn’t want Brits seeing this video. Does he think we’re pro-shark or something?
- Ipo
  
  ProxTube – Unblock YouTube, an add-on for Firefox.
  
  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/proxtube/
  install from Mozilla
  - http://codeflow.org/ Florian Bösch
    
    And now for those with Chrome, Safari, Opera and IE please? Because apparently the uploader doesn’t like europeans in general seeing this movie.
    - http://www.facebook.com/MichaelDawson5423 Michael Dawson
      
      Not just Europeans, can’t view it in New Zealand either maybe he made it US only, for what reason I have no idea.
      - http://twitter.com/thekingcast Bob LeDrew
        
        Or Canada.
      - http://jayarava.blogspot.com Jayarava
        
        The very first commenter posted a YouTube link to the footage that can seen everywhere. Scroll up.
  - Mantissa128
    
    Thank you! I was also blocked in Canada.
    
    But now – I have watched their video! I have stolen from them! Their children will be destitute and their loved ones will starve!
    
    Muhahahaha!
    - Finnagain
      
      And now that you have stolen it, nobody else can enjoy it. Thanks a lot!
  - DeargDoom
    
    ProxTube seems to send Firefox to the ProxTube Facebook page every time I restart the browser. Not classy.
    - Ipo
      
      That has never, not once, happened to me.
      That would be unacceptable.
      - DeargDoom
        
        Upon installing the plugin it happened multiple times in row. I tried closing all open tabs in Firefox and then closing and restarting the application and it still happened.
        
        As a test, I have just reinstalled it. It didnt happen at all this time. The tool doesnt seem to work from France though.
- http://twitter.com/acridweasel Brent Carpenter
  
  Those of you having problems viewing the video should take a look at tunnelbear.com
  It’s a really simple program that allows you to switch between US & UK presence so you can view region-locked content.
  Don’t thank me, thank Mr. Neil Gaiman who made me aware of this via Twitter! :)
  - Mantissa128
    
    So many helpful people here today!
    
    I wonder if this is the kind of thing that could be shut down by SOPA. Are we engaging in ‘piracy’, here?
    - EH
      
      it’s best if you never know for sure.
  - chumpmeat
    
    Brent,
    tunnelbear worked like a charm! Thanks for the heads up.
  - http://twitter.com/ChrisPerriman Chris Perriman
    
    Thanks for that; works like a charm.
  - Lolotehe
    
    Well, it kinda worked for what I wanted: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/39f0d457-37ba-43b9-b0a9-05214bae5d97
- Julian Turner
  
  Christ, what an asshole.
- http://www.facebook.com/magnus.redin Magnus Redin
  
  “Innehållsleverantören har inte gjort det här videoklippet tillgängligt i ditt land.” It is Swedish that translates to “fuck you, internet has borders”.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JEKPSYL2IEXE326JTHUP6GEKF4 Tweek
  
  Belize is also on the outs
soniasimone

Cetaceans FTW.
- Pedantic Douchebag
  
  It would take a pretty big cetacean to fuck the world.
  - pipenta
    
    FTW = For The Win
    - Pedantic Douchebag
      
      Nah. That’s just stupid. Fuck The World.
      - euansmith
        
        There’s only one type of mammal that’s doing your sort of FTW – and it ain’t Killer Whales
      - Pedantic Douchebag
        
        Look, I get that they don’t show a lot of respect for the environment, but I believe that beavers deserve a bit more respect than you’re showing them.
Zero Sonico

Me from poor country. Me not can see video.
Manuel McLure

The one time I went whale watching seemed like it was going to be disappointing. After 1/2 of the allotted time we’d only seen one pod of humpbacks. Then one of the humpbacks breached (and I got a nice shot of it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8950872@N07/3844853356/in/set-72157622107821554/ ) and then another of the whales came over to the boat to say hello! It was rubbing up against the boat and you could look right over the side and see it 6-7ft below you. Whale breath stinks, by the way.
- Just_Ok
  
  Their farts are worse
humanhair

Can’t see vid *sigh*
makie

It seems the uploader doesn’t like Spain either…
http://twitter.com/ChrisPerriman Chris Perriman

This (UK) news report was just posted over on io9. Does that show the main stuff from the video here, or is there more to see?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gmU0ATRbedU
Marktech

Blocked. I guess there’s a reason it’s not called International Geographic.
viggy

No air guitar for the whale or bagpipes for the shark. C’est la vie! The beat of life continues or sometimes you get the shark other times the shark gets you.
gibbon1

I couldn’t watch, the constant cutting back and forth every five seconds. I know this story format, five seconds of footage followed by ten seconds of someone expressing their ‘feelings’ about the story for 2 to 3 minutes is de rigueur for television, but it’s cancer and needs to stop. How about show the footage, then talk. or better show the footage and then use text to comment about the footage.
- taj
  
  Thanks gibbon1. I feel better now about being blocked from viewing it (in Japan).
- bunaen
  
  Yeah, the video stinks.
HenryPootel

I should watch this on my chumby…
kromelizard

“Feel free to make heavy metal devil hands…”

It’s: “Throw up the horns.”
- http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  Well, I never claimed to be metal. ;)
  - euansmith
    
    There’s a little bit of metal in everyone – especially those of us who have been abducted by aliens :O
    - MarcVader
      
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGrklgH8wC0
George Michaelson

with one remaining arm, turn shark on back, while re-mounting what remains of your surfboard and staunching the bloodlosss.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
  
  Actually humans can do this tonic immobility trick quite easily on sharks in shallow water. I have seen video of pretty big lemon sharks being flipped.
  
  I got bumped by a shark a few years ago near San Luis Pass. Pretty sure it was a lemon. I think a bull shark would have bit me. Most shark attacks happen when visibility is poor. If the sharks can see us clearly, they don’t bite. When they can’t see clearly, they bump and sometimes nibble. Their nibbles are often fatal.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_K7VL6KTR66AYGYO7WMQIRYOGKM sms1122

“Tonic immobility” I think that’s how I ended up with my first wife…
- EnglebertFlaptyback
  
  No, that’d be “gin and tonic immobility.”
sockdoll

“Feel free to make heavy metal devil hands at your computer screen…”

Crap. I just checked Google and I’ve been signing “I love you” all of this time.
- http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  Yeah, I had that problem in high school. I hope there are some good ASL puns involving this.
Daemonworks

For the record, they are actually dolphins, not whales.
EnglebertFlaptyback

I love the bit with the liver. ”O HAI…WE HAZ SHARK PATE’. WANT SOME?”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

The video was taken by my former manager at Oracle, Pat Kiddle!

He didn’t know how amazing the event was, and gave the tape to researchers without a second thought.
- vonskippy
  
  An Oracle Manager giving valuable stuff away – he’ll be fired soon.
  - http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones
    
    The whole division got sold in 2000. You say we should be blaming Pat?
pipenta

Ah, it’s nature and all but, I do so love these sharks, so a moment of sadness for it.
- http://www.facebook.com/MichaelDawson5423 Michael Dawson
  
  And the sharks love you too, they really really love you, om nom nom.
jguarShark

The story is interesting, but I don’t really understand the implied gloating. They are called *Killer* Whales for a reason. One beautiful but deadly predator kills another beautiful but deadly predator. Why the devil horns? Certainly we are above considering Great Whites “big meanies.”
- Talia
  
  I am pretty sure that wasn’t the intent of the post. More along the lines of “one giant huge predator manages to do in another giant huge predator,” just kind of an awesome battle in concept. Neither side is vilified here.
  - http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
    
    You are correct, Talia. The metalness comes not from killer whales winning that fight, but from the fact that the fight happened at all.
Blair Strang

Mammalian prejudice.
http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

The video doesn’t say if any sharks or orcas were killed but a similar showdown took place off the New Zealand coast Tuesday.

http://media.theage.com.au/news/environment-news/orca-vs-sharks-in-new-zealand-2865184.html
- Just_Ok
  
  Chook is DEAD!?!?
Andrew Meadows

This sounds like an event that is mentioned in the book “The Devil’s Teeth”, a documentary about a journalist who managed to spend some time on/near the Farlon Islands for a few months. As I recall it was a 13 foot male shark who was killed and the most interesting bit was that after he was killed all of the other white sharks being tracked in the area promptly departed the vicinity and swam out into the open ocean months early.
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

“Feel free to make heavy metal devil hands at your computer screen…”

it’s very rare that I actually, literally “lol” at anything online, but that line got me! C’est perfect!
http://twitter.com/dhparlee dhparlee

I want my money back. There was nowhere near the implied violence that I was hoping for.
MelSkunk

Between this and watching Frozen Planet, Killer Whales are never going to be called the adorable PC term Orcas again. They freak me out.
Rich Keller

Christ, what a blowhole.

And no more heavy metal devil hands for me. I’m doing a heavy metal dorsal fin from now on.
- http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  Pics or it didn’t happen.
euansmith

Having been blocked by National Geographic I did a quick search and came up with this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS6NjdGLVZs.

I couldn’t believe the unremitting savagery with which the commentary attacks the English language. It makes me really glad to have David Attenborough narrating my natural history programmes instead of this folksy, pejorative clap trap.
- Paul Renault
  
  Thanks for the link! Flip a shark upside down and it goes to sleep.
  
  I’ll have to remember that, the next time I’m in shark-infested waters.
- http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino
  
  Thank you for the link! I agree with you on the commentary. The amount of hate against the shark got quite ludicrous for a nature documentary. It made me appreciate BBC/Attenborough that much more for portraying even the most fearsome predators without ever taking away from each animal’s beauty and dignity. Then again, this is from 1997 and I know I’ve seen much higher quality from National Geographic.
  
  I guess the moral of this showdown is, yet again, that one shouldn’t mess with curvy, black and white cuteness larger than a penguin (also see: Pandas)…
- Rich Keller
  
  The video in this post does not have quite the, uh, poetic narration as yours, which is from Good Morning America, a trite morning “news” program(me).
  It sounded like it was written in the style of Beowulf.
  
  He left out
  “Shark shatterer, bringer of death,
  Flips his fluked back
  For herring from Wealhtheow’s hand.”
  - euansmith
    
    Thank you for your kenning response.
BlueSong

As it happens Channel 5 in England did an hour long documentary about this as part of their Nature Shock series, imaginatively titled – The Whale That Ate The Great White, its a little drawn out but still interesting, heres a link to the first part – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtv08L_FG-k
cfiber

Maybe it’s just me but… It seems that when a 6-ton killer whale with 30 tons of biting pressure has a 2-ton fish made out of cartilage in his mouth, he merely needs to bite down. The suggestion that the killer whale must have “a trick about shark anatomy and behavior” seems ridiculous. The dead shark happened to be upside down.