Killer whales hunt 9-foot great white shark in drone video

The orca bites the shark around its liver, with a cloud of blood pooling out into the green-tinted water.Part of South Africa-based marine biologist Alison Towner's long-term work with great whites, the clip shares what she wrote on her Instagram is "one of the most incredible pieces of natural history ever captured on film."SHARK ATTACKS: EXPERT SHARES FACTS ABOUT THE OCEAN PREDATOR AMID UPTICK IN SIGHTINGSThree killer whales hunt a nine-foot great white shark (Credit: Discovery's Shark Week) In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, the scientist said she had been studying the movement ecology of great white sharks for 15 years.

While Towner noted that Mossel Bay had noticed great whites disappearing, this is "the world's first drone footage of killer whales predating on a white shark."The moment the three killer whales attack (Credit: Discovery's Shark Week) "It's the first time in South Africa it's ever been documented as direct evidence," she said. WITH SHARK SIGHTINGS ON THE RISE ON EAST COAST, SCIENTISTS THEORIZE CONSERVATION EFFORTS MAY PLAY A ROLEResearchers, she told the outlet, had evidence for killer whale attacks on white sharks before and data had revealed a change in the orcas' cycling habits.

Two of the killer whales hunting the shark (Credit: Discovery's Shark Week) Towner's article published in the African Journal of Marine Science tackles the subject more in-depth.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP"The reality is, their movement has been very much messed up by the increased risk of killer whale predation and now the total of dead white sharks has climbed to [eight] and one more bronze whaler shark, since this paper was submitted," Towner wrote on Instagram. "That's only the carcasses we know of.