An incredible occurrence of never before seen shark behavior took place recently in South Africa. A drone captured a Great White Shark drowning a 33-foot humpback whale. This event marks the first verified report of a shark successfully killing a living whale.
Great White Shark is a common sight around a dead whale carcass. However, few believed that they also hunt living whales, as some scientists argue that the whale’s size requires too much energy to take down to be worth it. Fully grown humpback whales can grow up to 60 feet.
Proof of this attack speaks for itself, as a drone captured the live predation event. The drone footage shows a Great White Shark biting a juvenile whale’s tale, likely to rupture a vein or artery to slow the whale down or make it bleed to death. Next, the shark puts its weight down on the whale’s head to drag it underwater, drowning the whale. The footage of the attack is now due to release during NatGeo’s Sharkfest special Shark vs. Whale on July 28th.
Ryan Johnson, the Blue Wilderness Research Unit’s research coordinator, filmed the even while conducting unrelated research nearby. Newsweek interviewed Johnson once the story broke, that interview can be found here.
