The sharks may have been conditioned to give the killer whales a wide berth from a 1997 attack, witnessed by whale watchers, in which "orcas ripped out and devoured the shark’s liver."“What we saw was that when orcas came close to the island during shark season, all of the sharks would take off,” said Salvador Jorgensen, a Monterey Bay Aquarium researcher and lead author of the study. “As a predator that has been successful for millions of years, that may be the card white sharks know how to play that has kept them alive so long — knowing when to fold.”
(NY Post image)
The report, which used acoustic tracking data from 165 white sharks between 2006 and 2013 and observations on Southeast Farallon Island dating to 1987, found that the sharks would all vanish around the islands, even if the orcas were just passing through.
Great white sharks aren't mindless killing machines; they can have profound learning experiences, too.
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