Orcas Spotted for First Time With Bizarre Hunting Strategy

Killer whales have been caught on camera turning big fish into something like confetti—and scientists say it's a move no one had documented before. In two separate videos from the Gulf of California, one orca is seen gripping a sharp-tail sunfish while another slams into it head-on, hard enough that the carcass bursts into fragments that rain down around the whales, reports the Washington Post. See a video here. "Exploding large vertebrae into thousands of fragments through kinetic impact alone is entirely unique," says researcher Erick Higuera, whose team detailed the behavior Thursday in the journal Frontiers in Ethology.

The targets, slow and hefty sunfish that can reach several hundred pounds, have a thick, jellylike outer layer that's tough to bite through. Ramming them appears to turn a hard-to-crack meal into bite-size pieces, including for nearby calves observed nibbling on the scraps as adults fed on the rest. On the other hand, the behavior "could also just be for fun," Kathryn Ayres of Beneath the Waves tells the Guardian. "Orcas are known for playing with their food." Because such "extreme fragmentation" hasn't been reported elsewhere, Higuera suspects it may be a local hunting tradition, passed down within this particular orca community—off Mexico, in the Gulf of California—much like other learned behaviors, such as ramming boats.