{"id":708395,"date":"2026-07-24T06:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/708395\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T06:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T06:48:19","slug":"orcas-filmed-pulverizing-sunfish-for-either-food-or-fun-purposes-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/708395\/","title":{"rendered":"Orcas filmed pulverizing sunfish for either food or fun purposes | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orcas<\/a> have been filmed pulverising one of the world\u2019s heaviest fish, in what scientists say could either be a feeding strategy or simply a way of having fun.<\/p>\n

Underwater footage taken off the coast of Mexico<\/a> in 2024 shows one orca holding the carcass of a sunfish in its mouth, before a male rams into it, causing the creature to explode into hundreds of pieces. <\/p>\n

The never-before-seen behaviour<\/a> was repeated again just a year later, this time off the Gulf of California<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The behaviour, reported in the Frontiers in Ethology journal, could be a means of breaking down a large meal into hundreds of smaller pieces for orca calves.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr it could also just be for fun,\u201d said Kathryn Ayres from the University of Sheffield, explaining that the mammals are known for playing with their food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orcas have been filmed pulverising one of the world\u2019s heaviest fish, in what scientists say could either be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[14632,219825,219827,232009,36669,6494,309,203662,176898,293,10668,172288,232008,11237,185019,15207,11090,183803,71617,185022,6487,90,195600,1671,217,55531,56,54,203664,55,659,4407,203772],"class_list":["post-708395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-argentina","tag-argentina-national-soccer-team","tag-argentina-national-team","tag-atlanta-georgia","tag-coach","tag-color-image","tag-england","tag-england-national-soccer-team","tag-england-national-team","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-georgia-us-state","tag-horizontal","tag-international-team-soccer","tag-looking","tag-manager","tag-match-sport","tag-mercedes-benz-stadium","tag-national-team","tag-photography","tag-science","tag-semifinal-round","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-thomas-tuchel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-kingdom-national-team","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-usa","tag-wildlife","tag-world-sports-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}