{"id":619577,"date":"2026-09-09T18:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T18:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619577\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T18:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T18:46:12","slug":"can-any-animal-kill-a-blue-whale-at-33-metres-long-and-heavier-than-a-boeing-737-it-is-the-largest-creature-ever-to-have-lived-but-is-it-vulnerable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/619577\/","title":{"rendered":"Can any animal kill a blue whale? At 33 metres long and heavier than a Boeing 737, it is the largest creature ever to have lived but is it vulnerable?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ocean, different animals have their own unique self-defence strategies to help them survive predators. Some, like\u00a0crustaceans<\/a>\u00a0have hard shells to protect their vulnerable parts. Others go on the offensive; for example,\u00a0blue-ringed octopuses<\/a>\u00a0strike back at attackers with a venomous bite.<\/p>\n

Some critters active stealth mode:\u00a0octopuses<\/a>\u00a0blend into their background using\u00a0camouflage<\/a>\u00a0while pygmy sperm whales spurt dark red intestinal fluid into the water, like a smokescreen, to give them a chance to vanish in the confusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The largest animal in the world \u2013 the\u00a0blue whale<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 is protected from most assailants by its sheer size. At up to 33 metres long, these epic animals are longer than a tennis court. Calves weigh around the same as an African\u00a0elephant<\/a>\u00a0and females can grow to around 180,000kg \u2013 more than a Boeing 737. It\u2019s no surprise that most animals don\u2019t try to take them on.<\/p>\n

Can any animal kill a blue whale?<\/p>\n

But there is one species that can overcome a blue whale:\u00a0orcas<\/a>. Often considered the ocean\u2019s apex predator, killer whales hunt many other animals, from small fish and\u00a0salmon<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0sharks<\/a>\u00a0and marine mammals, such as\u00a0seals<\/a>,\u00a0dolphins<\/a> and whales (depending on their ecotype \u2013 different types of killer whales have different diets). Some orcas have even learned how to kill\u00a0great white sharks\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 snacking on just their liver and leaving the rest of the carcass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although clever killer whales often pick off weaker and more vulnerable animals, such as whale calves, a pod has been recorded\u00a0killing an adult blue whale<\/a>. Scientists came across the incident by accident and were astonished to witness a pod of around 14 killer whales worked together to kill an 18-22m long blue whale, who seemed otherwise healthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The huge carcass sank to the seafloor but the killer whales didn\u2019t let that stop their feast: the researchers saw the orcas diving down and returning to the surface with mouthfuls of flesh, sharing their bounty with their pod-mates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other animals would have benefited from this kill too. Although other species don\u2019t actively hunt blue whales, many scavengers make the most of the carcass bringing important nutrients down to the seabed. This banquet is an important part of the food web and is known as\u00a0whale fall<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one other animal that\u2019s capable of killing graceful blue whales: humans. Before commercial whaling was banned, hundreds of thousands of blue whales were killed (nearly\u00a030,000<\/a>\u00a0of those were slaughtered in the 1930-31 season alone). Thankfully, their numbers are now\u00a0recovering<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the ocean, different animals have their own unique self-defence strategies to help them survive predators. Some, like\u00a0crustaceans\u00a0have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-619577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}