Orcas killing fully grown adult Great White Sharks

[Megalodon]

(08-15-2019, 10:35 AM)Shadow Wrote:

(08-15-2019, 05:11 AM)Megalodon Wrote: Many people tend to badly overrate the capabilities of Orca's, often ignoring the fact that when Orca's hunt Great White Sharks, they almost always hunt small ones and do so cooperatively, which gives them a huge advantage. It's doubtful if a lone Orca would ever dare to prey on an adult white shark, especially the huge mega-sharks that reach around 18-23 ft and weigh around 2.5 - 3 tonnes.

In a clash, a Great White is yay as capable of destroying an Orca, due to its possibly deadlier weaponry, durability and aggressiveness. An Orca is literally a giant DOLPHIN (Cetacean) which has extremely sensitive skin thats very susceptible to severe damage by the sharks jaws. One clean bite from the white shark, and may be all over for the Orca. The Orca will simply bleed out very quickly, and the shark can even dive down deep and wait for the Orca to bleed out and then finish off the kill.

Lone Orca's always hunt much smaller prey, whereas white sharks will readily kill giant 3-tonne Bull elephant seals and have been observed to hunt giant squids at 4,000 ft depth. An Orca doesn't even compare to these lone predation feats.

To show you what I mean, here's an adult male Orca's jaw gape:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Now imagine that going head-on with this:

*This image is copyright of its original author

The Orca would be in serious trouble if it went head-on as against a Great white. The sharks jaws are massive and devastating and would tear chunks out of the Orcas flesh with ease!

Orca's always hunt white sharks COOPERATIVELY - not single-handedly. Thats a huge difference. If Orca's were solitary predators like the Great white, then there's the Great white shark might just be the undisputed top apex predator of the ocean. Orca's only have the upper-hand over sharks because they run and operate exclusively in packs. Without the pod, I'm sure there would be numerous accounts of white sharks killing Orca's too.

What do you guys think?...

Orca is clearly bigger animal, size matters in wildlife. Also orcas are without a doubt very intelligent. It is quite difficult to see what a great white shark could do really. When we are talking about apex predators of seas, orcas are on the top for many good reasons. I also like sharks, but in time, when learning more about these animals, it became clear to me, that great white shark or any shark aren´t really apex predators, because they are also prey. Orca is only apex predator, when we talk about "big boys". Predator sharks are simply too small. And it seems to be so, that many sharks are quite uncomfortable with dolphins too, even when dolphins are clearly smaller.

Anyway even though, when younger, great white shark was kind of "my hero", I´ve learned to understand, that it can´t do what it wants and it also knows fear, when a bigger predator approaches. Wildlife is merciless and size does matter there.

This is how I see it.

You never acknowledged anything I said. Size does not always matter in nature, there's many factors that can overcome a size advantage. This has been proven over and over again. For example, in Russia, tigers fight, hunt and kill larger Brown bears. If the size theory that your suggesting is true, then tigers would not hunt another larger predator as powerful as a Brown bear. But the reality is that they do, and do so successfully most of the time. Just like how the tiger possesses many physical advantages over larger Brown bears which makes them neutralize the Brown bears size and weight, the white shark also possesses certain physical attributes that can easily help it overcome an Orca in a head-on battle. In fact, in a head-on battle - the shark possesses the more important and vital advantages over an Orca, like teeth, jaws and durability.

Here's the facts that you never acknowledged in my first post:

1) Orca's ALWAYS hunt sharks cooperatively, using strength in numbers. Big advantage!

2) The white sharks teeth and jaws are far more deadlier, perfectly designed to tear off huge chunks off flesh in a single bite - especially from very soft, sensitive skinned Cetaceans. (Orca's, Dolphins)

3) The only reason why Orca's dominate over sharks is due to the clear fact that they run in packs. - There's a very good reason why marine experts refer to the Orca as the "Wolves of the Sea" its because they always hunt cooperatively with their pod. 

And Great whites don't struggle with Dolphins. Who told you that?...White sharks will readily predate on full-grown adult Dolphins, Porpoises and even small whales. Great whites even habitually attack and kill giant Bull elephant seals which can weigh anywhere from 2 - 3 tonnes. As heavy as the shark itself. The largest prey I've ever seen a LONE Orca kill is an adult fur seal. Thats nothing. White sharks, single-handedly, hunt and kill FAR LARGER and more dangerous prey than a lone Orca does. 

I sincerely and very strongly believe that the white shark has gotten very wrong and UNFAIR criticism when pitted against Orca's. Barely no one mentions the fact that Orca's primarily attack the much smaller juvenile sharks, and how they AMBUSH and cooperatively hunt them. Most people act like (I'm not saying you) Orca's are single-handedly going around killing full-grown adult white sharks, which is far from reality. 

This thread's name is also wrong. - In the recent South Africa cases, three of the sharks killed were small JUVENILES, and the other two were just medium-sized white sharks. Not one was fully-grown. Great whites grow very slowly over many decades and reach sexual maturity at around 25 years of age, and they continue to grow in size and mass over the years.

For any lone Orca to go head-on with a huge shark like this is extremely, and I mean extremely dangerous: (Potentially suicide)

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

I also remember, years ago I read a report of an adult false killer whale that was killed by a Great white shark. I'm gonna try and find that account, and if I do, I'll post it on here.

@Rishi 

Please, can you not edit my posts? I'm just having a friendly discussion and giving my point of view. Thats all. Let people read my analogies and examples and see where I'm coming from. Reply