Orcas in Mexico Have Learned to Attack Young Great White Sharks—by Flipping Them Upside Down and Eating Their Livers

Researchers captured the novel behavior on video in the Gulf of California, recording three separate takedowns across two hunts carried out by members of the Moctezuma pod

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

November 4, 2025

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Orcas are wily hunters known for cleverly adapting their takedown techniques based on their location and target prey. They’ll launch themselves onto the beach to nab sea lion pups, make waves to wash seals off chunks of floating ice and gang up to drown massive blue whales, just to name a few strategies.

Now, researchers say they have discovered another specialized tactic. Orcas in the Gulf of California are flipping young great white sharks upside down, which not only immobilizes the giant fish but also gives the orcas easy access to their nutrient-rich livers.

Scientists describe the novel behavior in a paper published November 2 in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

With their Gulf of California observations, the scientists may have stumbled upon a previously unknown group of shark-eating orcas. “Now, we have an example of another unique feeding strategy that probably isn’t shared by any other group of [orcas] in the world,” Andrew Trites, a biologist at the University of British Columbia who was not involved with the research, tells New Scientist’s Grace Wade.

Erick Higuera, a marine biologist at the conservation nonprofits Conexiones Terramar and Pelagic Life, caught the hunting technique on camera on two separate occasions. In August 2020 near La Paz, Mexico, he recorded five female orcas—thought to be one adult and four subadults—teaming up against a juvenile great white shark, ramming the creature until it flipped upside down. They repeated the same behavior a few minutes later with a different shark.

In August 2022, Higuera returned to the same area and again captured five orcas—this time, one adult male, one adult female, two subadults and one calf—hunting a juvenile great white shark in the same way.

In all the recorded instances, the orcas appeared to be primarily interested in the shark’s liver, which they shared among themselves. “It’s the only thing that’s really worth it for their time,” says Taylor Chapple, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University who was not involved with the research, to the New York Times’ Alexa Robles-Gil. “It’s sort of like they’re going for the cheeseburger surrounded by a bunch of celery.”

The orcas all appear to be members of the same pod—named the Moctezuma pod after a 50-year-old adult male in the group. Last year, this same pod made headlines for attacking and feasting on whale sharks.

Why are the orcas flipping the juvenile great white sharks upside down? This position induces “tonic immobility,” a reflex that temporarily makes the sharks unable to move. Scientists do not fully understand tonic immobility, but they suspect it might be a defense mechanism or somehow related to mating. “It is purely instinct,” says study co-author Francesca Pancaldi, a marine biologist at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico, to the Washington Post’s Dino Grandoni.

The findings are significant, as just a few instances of orcas attacking great white sharks have been recorded around the world. Most of those recorded encounters involved adult great white sharks: Until now, just one orca—a well-known creature named Starboard—had been documented attacking a juvenile. The incident took place off the coast of South Africa in June 2023.

The behavior is so rare that when Higuera initially showed his footage to Mauricio Hoyos, a marine biologist and co-author of the study, Hoyos asked whether the video had been taken in South Africa. “And I said, ‘No, dude, it’s here in La Paz,’” Higuera tells the Washington Post.

The pod might be targeting youngsters specifically because they are “naive to orcas,” says study co-author Salvador Jorgensen, a marine ecologist at California State University, Monterey Bay, in a statement. When adult great white sharks spot hunting orcas, they’re known to leave their seasonal gathering areas and not return for months, he adds. But juveniles may not fully understand how threatening orcas can be to their survival.

“We just don’t know yet whether white shark anti-predator flight responses are instinctual or need to be learned,” Jorgensen adds.

The Moctezuma pod may be taking advantage of rising ocean temperatures and climate events like El Niño, which appear to be pushing Pacific great white shark nurseries northward, per the paper. As a result, more juveniles are now swimming around the Gulf of California—home to the crafty orcas. It’s also possible, however, that the behavior has “been going on for centuries” and scientists have only just now observed it, Pancaldi tells NBC News’ Evan Bush. “It’s just that it’s not easy to observe something like this.”

Either way, the findings are yet another reminder of orcas’ seemingly limitless intelligence and adaptability. “I believe that orcas that eat … sharks and rays could eat a great white shark, if they wanted to, anywhere they went looking for one,” Higuera says in the statement.

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Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.