{"id":2739,"date":"2026-08-14T22:24:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/orcas-filmed-ramming-moonfish-at-high-speed-causing-explosions\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T22:24:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T21:24:51","slug":"orcas-filmed-ramming-moonfish-at-high-speed-causing-explosions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/orcas-filmed-ramming-moonfish-at-high-speed-causing-explosions\/","title":{"rendered":"Orcas Filmed Ramming Moonfish at High Speed, Causing Explosions"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><\/figure>\n<p><strong>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.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Giant Pinatas<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Sunfish belong to the heaviest group of bony fish in the world. If the Mola mola can surpass 2,700 kilograms, the day\u2019s target, the elongated sunfish (<em>Masturus lanceolatus<\/em>), can weigh up to two tonnes, which translates to a substantial amount of meat.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Nuclear command? Jellyfish mount another assault on a French power plant<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Captured in 2024 in the Gulf of California, the initial footage shows an adult orca gripping a <em>Masturus lanceolatus<\/em> by its tail fin, and releasing it just before another <strong>cetacean<\/strong> rams into it at high speed, causing it to explode into thousands of pieces with a muted crack.<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, the younger members of the pod pounce eagerly on the smaller chunks of flesh, while the adults converge on the larger portions.<\/p>\n<p>This intriguing ceremony was documented a year later in the same waters. The fact that the \u201cpinatas\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">Voracious arachnids: harvestmen caught attacking live frogs<\/span><\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"cssc-content-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Watch an orca ram into a sunfish so hard it explodes | Science News\" width=\"680\" height=\"510\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/w3RK8TXfixY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Morbid Creativity<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Although the idea of sharing the spoils\u2014an orca distributing sunfish chunks rather than loaves\u2014appears to be the prevailing interpretation among researchers, they do not dismiss the possibility that this behavior could simply be a form of play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Orcas are known for playing with their food<\/em>,\u201d notes Kathryn Ayres, lead author of the new study, published in the journal <em>Frontiers in Ethology<\/em>. \u201c<em>They are one of the most iconic marine predators, and yet they keep surprising us<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<section class=\"incontent-related\"><span class=\"incontent-related__title\">Read also<\/span> <span class=\"incontent-related__desc\">The brain of squids shrinks due to ocean acidification<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Earlier, American researchers had documented the very first use of tools by orcas, during sessions of \u201c<em>underwater grooming<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2139,2140,407,1010,2138,1158,2137,1684],"class_list":["post-2739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-causing","tag-explosions","tag-filmed","tag-high","tag-moonfish","tag-orcas","tag-ramming","tag-speed","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2741,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions\/2741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}