SHARKS are being driven away from their home by a pair of serial killer whales who have developed a taste of their livers.
The brutal bunch have been terrorising great white sharks off the coast of Südafrika schon seit 2017.
Bisher, seven torn remains have washed up on shore with their livers gruesomely removed.
They’ve also snacked on some of the sharks’s hearts too.
Expects suspect many more have met a grisly end further out to sea.
The large number of great white sharks that usually gather around the area appear to have got the hinted and decided its best to hang out some place else to avoid the same fate.
Read more about whales
Researchers say the large-scale avoidance strategy is much like wild dogs in the presence of lions.
It’s not unheard of for orcas to kill sea creatures for dinner of course.
But rarely does it have such an impact on habitat.
Scientists were stunned to see sharks have been abandoning territory traditionally swarming with them.
Die meisten lesen in Tech
Some tagged sharks did a runner for weeks and even months at a time.
“The more the orcas frequent these sites, the longer the great white sharks stay away,” said Alison Towner from the Dyer Island Conservation Trust.
“The research is particularly important, as by determining how large marine predators respond to risk, we can understand the dynamics of coexistence with other predator communities; and these dynamics may also dictate the interactions between competitors or intra-guild predator/prey relationship.”
Great white sharks aren’t exactly weak either, with up to 300 razor-sharp teeth that make them one of the toughest predators of the sea.
So much so, the whale duo have a fair share of scars.
The dramatic shift is also affecting the wider ecosystem, with another type of shark deciding to move into the free space.
The research is published in the African Journal of Marine Science.
- Holen Sie sich das Neueste Wissenschaft Nachrichten
- Bleiben Sie auf dem Laufenden mit den Top Platz & Astronomie Geschichten
- Alles neu Archäologie Neuigkeiten von Dinosauriern bis zu antiken Artefakten
Erfahren Sie mehr über Wissenschaft
Möchten Sie mehr über die seltsame und wunderbare Welt der Wissenschaft erfahren?? Vom Mond zum menschlichen Körper, Wir haben Sie abgedeckt…
- When is the next Full Moon?
- What is a Supermond?
- Erschütternde Fotos zeigten Menschen, die um ihr Leben rannten SpaceX?
- Where is the edge of space?
- How many bones are in the human body?
- Wie viele chromosomes do humans have?
- What causes a volcano to erupt?
- Welche sharks attack the most humans?
- Was sind die Verschwörungstheorien about the world ending?
- All the UFO sightings and whether aliens are real
- Which country has the most earthquakes?
Wir bezahlen für Ihre Geschichten! Haben Sie eine Geschichte für The Sun Online Tech? & Wissenschaftsteam? Mailen Sie uns an tech@the-sun.co.uk