{"id":861901,"date":"2026-09-27T00:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T00:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861901\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T00:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T00:22:13","slug":"can-any-animals-kill-the-much-feared-predator-the-great-white-shark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861901\/","title":{"rendered":"Can any animals kill the much-feared predator, the great white shark?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

If we were to believe movies like\u00a0Jaws<\/a>,\u00a0great white sharks\u00a0<\/a>are the ocean’s most terrifying predator says Melissa Hobson<\/a>. Nothing can take on a great white and live to tell the tale\u00a0\u2013\u00a0or\u00a0can it?\u00a0<\/p>\n

White sharks\u00a0(Carcharodon carcharias)\u00a0are built for taking down their prey. Their bulky\u00a0torpedo-shaped\u00a0bodies\u00a0and\u00a0powerful tails enable them to bullet through the water reaching speeds of\u00a0almost\u00a035 miles per hour<\/a>, and their rows of\u00a0large, triangular\u00a0teeth<\/a>\u00a0can\u00a0slide through flesh like warm butter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So,\u00a0you might be surprised to hear that they are preyed upon too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can any animals kill a great white shark?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Killer whales\u00a0(Orcinus orca)<\/a> are one of the most intelligent predators in the ocean.\u00a0Mariners used to call them\u00a0\u2018whale killer<\/a>.\u2019\u00a0It\u2019s not an unfair nickname. Pods are\u00a0known to take down\u00a0humpback whales<\/a>,\u00a0bowhead whales<\/a>, and even\u00a0blue\u00a0whales<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0the\u00a0world’s largest animal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Orcas\u00a0don’t just stop at hunting whales and some orcas\u00a0are known to eat\u00a0sharks\u00a0\u2013\u00a0including\u00a0great whites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Orcas don’t mess about when it comes to\u00a0hunting<\/a>\u00a0white sharks. They swoop in, create a tear in the shark’s side with the precision of a surgeon and rip out its liver.<\/p>\n

After eating this nutrient rich organ, they leave the shark to die\u00a0\u2013\u00a0not\u00a0touching the rest of its body. This scheming attack can all be over in a matter of minutes. In some areas, white sharks have been known to\u00a0vanish<\/a>\u00a0when\u00a0orcas are around.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although hunting in groups gives\u00a0orcas an advantage, one lone\u00a0orca has\u00a0have\u00a0been recorded killing a white shark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Size isn’t everything in the animal kingdom. One species known to take a chomp out of white sharks is surprisingly small. One of the world’s weirdest sharks<\/a>, the\u00a0cookiecutter\u00a0shark<\/a>\u00a0(Isistius\u00a0brasiliensis) measures just\u00a0half a metre\u00a0but that doesn’t put it off feasting on prey much bigger than itself. They\u2019ll even have a nibble on a\u00a0great white.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cookie cutters don’t need to kill the animal to enjoy a feast. They swim up, clamp on with their teeth and spin\u00a0around\u00a0to remove a perfectly circular plug of flesh. The scar\u00a0\u2013\u00a0as\u00a0you might have guessed from the name\u00a0\u2013\u00a0looks\u00a0like someone’s removed the tissue with a cookie cutter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There’s one more animal that kills great white sharks and this one is the most terrifying of all: us. Humans kill\u00a0100 million sharks<\/a>\u00a0every year\u00a0through fishing.\u00a0As well as overfishing, we also threaten them through\u00a0things like\u00a0urban development\u00a0and\u00a0pollution.<\/p>\n

Predators like sharks play a vital part in keeping the ocean healthy. By removing weak and sick animals from the ecosystem<\/a>, they help maintain balance. When white sharks vanished from\u00a0False Bay<\/a>\u00a0in South Africa, the\u00a0ripple effect caused\u00a0major changes across the food web. Scientists still don’t know what the long-term impact\u00a0from this disruption\u00a0will be.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If we were to believe movies like\u00a0Jaws,\u00a0great white sharks\u00a0are the ocean’s most terrifying predator says Melissa Hobson. Nothing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-861901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}