Orcas Filmed Ramming Moonfish at High Speed, Causing Explosions

Social beings by nature, orcas are renowned for their intelligence and for exhibiting behaviors that are both unique and intricate. The latest instance involves sunfish, slammed at high speed by these cetaceans and breaking apart like confetti.

Giant Pinatas

Sunfish belong to the heaviest group of bony fish in the world. If the Mola mola can surpass 2,700 kilograms, the day’s target, the elongated sunfish (Masturus lanceolatus), can weigh up to two tonnes, which translates to a substantial amount of meat.

Captured in 2024 in the Gulf of California, the initial footage shows an adult orca gripping a Masturus lanceolatus by its tail fin, and releasing it just before another cetacean rams into it at high speed, causing it to explode into thousands of pieces with a muted crack.

Subsequently, the younger members of the pod pounce eagerly on the smaller chunks of flesh, while the adults converge on the larger portions.

This intriguing ceremony was documented a year later in the same waters. The fact that the “pinatas” are already dead in both cases suggests that this behavior may be more about a brutal handling of the food than an innovative predation tactic.

Morbid Creativity

Although the idea of sharing the spoils—an orca distributing sunfish chunks rather than loaves—appears to be the prevailing interpretation among researchers, they do not dismiss the possibility that this behavior could simply be a form of play.

“Orcas are known for playing with their food,” notes Kathryn Ayres, lead author of the new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ethology. “They are one of the most iconic marine predators, and yet they keep surprising us.”

For her team, the next step will be to determine whether this practice is confined to a particular population of these whales, and whether it extends to other types of prey.

Earlier, American researchers had documented the very first use of tools by orcas, during sessions of “underwater grooming.”