
Nature is brutal. A gruesome, rare video captured recently is now going viral on the Internet. In it, a killer whale can be seen "slurping" the liver out of a live shark.
The gruesome video on YouTube shows the moment an orca tears into the stomach of a massive 30-foot (nine metres) long whale shark before removing its liver.
In the video, other nearby orcas can be heard clicking excitedly in a frenzy as their fellow killer whale swims away from the now dead shark that sinks lifelessly to the depths of the ocean.
Talking to Live Science, James Moskito, CEO of the California-based ocean tour operator Ocean Safaris, who captured the video during an expedition to the Gulf of California, said: "The killer whales start coming in and next I know they're biting the bottom of it (the victim shark)".
"It's literally over in a matter of seconds," remarks Moskito, adding, "They came in, they bit the bottom of the whale shark. Looks like they slurped in the liver and then the whale shark just fell and descended down, with no movement — I'm assuming it was dead."
The video was captured back in April. You can watch it here— viewer discretion is advised:
As per Moskito, he and his companions later saw the orca pod attack and kill another whale shark. He recalls that they saw a whale shark "just thrashing at the surface with a killer whale attached to it."
While, earlier, scientists have seen instances of orcas attacking juvenile whale sharks — there's also filmed evidence — this footage, as per Live Science, may be the first known video of killer whales attacking an adult whale shark.
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Whale Sharks are the biggest species of Shark on this planet and can grow up to 60 feet or 18 metres long. Adults of the species have few natural predators. However, juvenile calves have been known to fall prey to orcas and tiger sharks.
(With inputs from agencies)
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