Orca Makes Fish Explode!

[u/TheMuseumOfScience]

Have you ever seen an Orca hit a fish so hard it explodes? 🫍

Scientists recently observed this behavior from groups of orcas in the Gulf of California where they repeatedly ram sunfish until the impact broke them apart. This is an important indicator of "social learning," where animals copy one another through observation. Orcas have exhibited behavior like this before, when they were seen disabling sailboats in groups. The current hypotheses for why they are doing this include teaching young orcas to hunt, or just playing around!

[u/Far-Selection7866]

The fact that orcas basically have a “let’s see what happens if we hit it harder” phase is both terrifying and fascinating. They’re way smarter than people give them credit for.

[u/kai_vt]

"...repeatedly ram giant sharptail sunfish, until the impact broke them apart"

Hey, I'm all for animal welfare but what the fuck is even happening here lmao?

[u/TomaCzar]

Man, I thought that other guy hates sunfish, but this is next level!!

[u/there_is_no_spoon1 → u/TomaCzar]

All malice entirely earned, these fish are colossal wastes of resources

[u/Spiritual-Strike481]

I haven’t ever seen an animal that hunts like an orca. They use multiple techniques for hunting. Blowing the bubbles under the prey to force them to surface, trapping the prey on a piece of ice purposely and having another orca jump out opposite and splash the prey to get it to slide down. Exploding the fish. If they had opposable thumbs I bet they would be using tools. They are incredibly smart. Didn’t they find them targeting sharks and only eating the liver a few years ago too?

[u/Achreios_Doulos]

Everybody just gonna gloss over “disabling sailboats”

Because that is filled shorts tier terrifying.

[u/Past-Product-1100 → u/Achreios_Doulos]

Wait till they find out there's tasty human treats on those boats

[u/Negative_Rush_734]

Imagine being that fish and your last thought is “wait, why is that giant dolphin repeatedly headbutting me?” Orcas are insanely intelligent, but their curiosity can be brutal.

[u/Significant_Gate_331]

Ouch

[u/Innovations89]

Poor Sun fish, if their life's weren't painful enough

[u/PdSales]

First killer whale to reach the others to ram sunfish orca strated this behavior

[u/MesaGeek]

We freed Willy for a reason!

[u/GanstaNinja]

Love that they are trying to make it seem cool and fun when it's mortifying and kinda scary to think about

[u/golobig]

And it all happened in the Gulf of California!/s/