Great White Shark is king of the deep, but it is scared of this predator

Great White Shark is the mean killing machine of the deep oceans. It is not often that you see in nature, a creature whose every fibre has evolved over millions of years for one purpose, to hunt. The great white has a nose that can detect a drop of blood in gallons of seawater, it has a superb submarine-like body that lets it swim vast distances efficiently. And finally, it has its feared jaws, immortalised by many movies as it was shown to (rather unfairly) chase and enjoy eating humans.

But the formidable lurker of the deep has been found to rather quickly run away from another predator. Can apex predator like the great white be actually scared of anything? It appears so.

Dyer Island in South Africa is considered to be Great White Shark capital of the world. Since 2017, researchers have recorded eight Great White Shark caracasses washed ashore. The number of great white sharks has dropped and they seem to be avoiding the waters in this area.

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Initially, it was thought that overfishing and other human activities were driving the sharks away. But a research team led by marine biologist Alison Towner of the Dyer Island Conservation Trust found something else.

The wounds on these shark carcasses were distinctive. And almost all of them were missing liver or heart.

Using tracking data and information from local fisherfolk, the researchers zeroed in on what it was that was scaring Great White Sharks away.

It was a pair of Orca or Killer Whales. This pair was hunting the apex predator of the ocean and muching on the nutritious livers of their captured prey. The duo was so effcient in their hunting that remaining great whites scarpered away, not to be seen for months an end.

The team's findings have been published in African Journal of Marine Science.

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