A video that was shared on social media shows a massive great white shark attacking and drowning a humpback whale.
Wildlife experts believe that this is the first-ever recording of such an event.
According to reports, the incident was filmed last summer on a drone camera off the coast of South Africa.
The video shows a 14ft shark hunting a 33ft humpback whale, which was in ill health.
The great white shark that attacked the whale was Helen, which was tagged by marine biologist Ryan Johnson as part of a 2013 study he was leading.
Johnson, who witnessed the drama, said that the entire incident happened for 50 minutes.
The whale eventually succumbed to its injuries and died.
During an interview with Newsweek, Johnson said:
The idea that I was witnessing a live predation event slowly arrived when I started watching the shark trying to bite onto the whale’s tail area. I honestly did not quite compute what a unique event it was until afterwards.
The incredible footage will be featured in the National Geographic documentary Shark vs. Whale, which premieres on Tuesday 28 July 2020.
It is part of the SharkFest series of the channel.
After filming the incident, Johnson realized that he had captured the first-ever documented evidence of a shark attacking and drowning event.
There are no other verified reports of a successful shark killing a living whale.
Johnson said:
I had heard of Orca pods taking on large whales and calves, but honestly thought it was well out of the scope of great white sharks.
Humpback whales are known to attack sharks, but it is extremely rare to find a shark fighting back.
Johnson also pointed out the fact that the great white shark had a strategy during its attack.
The shark reportedly severed and artery or a vein on the tail of the whale, which is its most vulnerable area.
The shark then dragged it underwater and drowned it.
Johnson added:
Great whites and other top predators function in keeping ecosystems in balance, mainly by removing weak or unhealthy prey from the ecosystem. In this case, we are talking about one of the planet’s largest predators attacking and killing one of the world’s largest species. It is just fascinating that we live on a planet that can still surprise us with an encounter of this magnitude.
You can watch the entire video of the incident on National Geographic’s Shark vs. Whale on July 28, 2020.
What do you think about the attack? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!