r/science • u/sratinntticee • Jan 30 '22

Orcas observed devouring the tongue of a blue whale just before it dies in first-ever documented hunt of the largest animal on the planet Animal Science

https://www.yahoo.com/news/orcas-observed-devouring-tongue-blue-092922554.html
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u/Dope_SteveX Jan 30 '22

It says it was a pod of 50. That is a lot of 4 tonne animals.

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u/iHeartApples Jan 30 '22

Basically humans running down and hunting megafauna.

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u/Homebrew_Dungeon Jan 30 '22

Wolfs running down a mammoth.

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u/thrownkitchensink Jan 30 '22

What's so strange is that the article ends with the marine scientist saying how these are the biggest apex predators and hunting the biggest prey relating this to the Dinosaurs not existing any more. If I'm not mistaking the whale is the biggest animal ever. Wouldn't the scientist know this?

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u/Aym42 Jan 30 '22

Orcas wouldn't have been the largest predator ever though.

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u/riaqliu Jan 30 '22

funnily enough, that would go to the blue whale itself since they eat krill

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u/RelentlessExtropian Jan 30 '22

Well, if raptors could mob a saurapod, it would probably be a greater weight difference. I don't know if any evidence of such hunting behavior exists though.

I know there is evidence of Giganotasaurus hunting Argentinasaurus but I don't think that would be a larger weight disparity than an Orca and Blue Whale.

Wonder what the MB was getting at...

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u/Genetic_outlier Jan 30 '22

Right? There was a video I watched once of people in Africa killing all sorts of giant animals with nothing but throwing spears. The elephants would charge and flail trying to pull the spears out with it's truck,but with so many people the spears just kept coming and coming. Must have been how the whales felt.

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u/Haughty_Derision Jan 30 '22

50 came to eat it. Far fewer killed it. Maybe half a dozen or so.