{"id":716696,"date":"2026-07-29T05:18:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/716696\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T05:18:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T05:18:23","slug":"just-feeding-or-maybe-a-bit-of-fun-killer-whale-seen-smashing-into-captive-sunfish-on-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/716696\/","title":{"rendered":"Just feeding, or maybe a bit of fun? Killer whale seen smashing into captive sunfish on video."},"content":{"rendered":"

The video, captured in 2024 by research scientist Kathryn Ayres off the coast of Baja California Sur in Mexico, was included in a research paper<\/a> posted Wednesday and quickly went viral, as people marveled at the orcas\u2019 merciless teamwork, either for feeding efficiency or, perhaps, a bit of fun. <\/p>\n

Another video taken last year by tour operator H\u00e9ctor Franz, of Creatures of Baja, showed a similar attack in the channel of Isla Cerralvo and was included in the study as well.<\/p>\n

The orca, or killer whale, is not a whale at all but the largest species of dolphin. It was given its nickname by Basque whalers who observed the species frequently feasting on the carcass of hunted whales, said John Durban, a senior scientist with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. <\/p>\n

Durban, who has been studying orcas for 35 years, is at once \u201camazed\u201d by the video yet \u201cnot surprised.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re incredibly capable,\u201d Durban said. \u201cThey learn from each other and do these cooperative behaviors to eat things that are difficult to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Deborah Giles, a whale scientist at the SeaDoc Society<\/a> in Washington state who specializes in orcas, said the ramming technique is a sure way to take out the prey without being vulnerable to a counterattack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see ramming, this type of foraging technique, typically with larger animals with teeth,\u201d she said <\/p>\n

Sunfish do not have large teeth to fight back against an orca, Giles said. What they do have is very tough skin.<\/p>\n

Killer whale attacks sunfish<\/p>\n

Killer whale rams into a sunfish so hard that it explodes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the ways they (sunfish) remain buoyant is to have this tough gel and collagen structure,\u201d Durban said. \u201cSo they\u2019re really tough to break into.\u201d<\/p>\n

Done the old-fashioned way, the attack might have taken a toll on the orca\u2019s teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be that these whales are very cognizant of not grinding down their teeth on their prey, so they find other ways to open them up,\u201d Durban said. <\/p>\n

Hence the high-speed ramming.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all living things, getting a nourishing meal with the least amount of effort is a key to survival,\u201d said Peter Girguis, a professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University. <\/p>\n

Much of the sunfish\u2019s outer layer is likely not consumed by the orcas at all, according to Durban. They are breaking through the sunfish\u2019s skin to get to the good stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re eating the bits that are really giving them a lot of nutrients and are easy to eat,\u201d Durban said. <\/p>\n

To Girguis, the sunfish is the real hero of the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m impressed by how resilient sunfish are,\u201d Girguis said. \u201cThey\u2019re bad asses.\u201d <\/p>\n

Videos show sunfish surviving attacks from sea lions, swimming away after their predator grows weary of trying to break through the tough skin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the ocean, creatures eat one another, and often when they take a bite out of a creature, that\u2019s the end for them,\u201d Girguis said. \u201cBut I think sunfish are so durable and so resilient that they just keep on swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the ramming method was simply the most efficient way for the orcas to take out the hardy sunfish. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be hard for some alien to describe our behavior, and in a way that\u2019s how I think about killer whales,\u201d Giles said. \u201cThey\u2019re curious animals. They love to interact with things in their environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giles said the orcas most likely vaporized the sunfish \u201cbecause they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to whether or not the orcas were having a bit of fun with their food, that would be an \u201cembarrassingly presumptuous\u201d conclusion, Girguis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not playing with it,\u201d said Durban, \u201cthey\u2019re processing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jane Miller can be reached at jane.miller@globe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The video, captured in 2024 by research scientist Kathryn Ayres off the coast of Baja California Sur in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-716696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716696","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=716696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}