A new study provides the first DNA evidence that killer whales in Australia hunt white sharks for their nutrient-rich livers.

Based on DNA analysis from the bite wounds on the carcass of a large white shark washed ashore near Portland in Victoria in ...

Recent findings used wildlife forensics and citizen science data to provide the first confirmed evidence of killer whale ...

Andrew Fox, Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions.For the first time, DNA evidence has confirmed killer whales in Australia hunted a ...

Scientists have resolved one of the outstanding questions about one of the world's most recognizable creatures, identifying two well-known killer whales in the North Pacific Ocean as separate species.

For most of the 20th century, scientists on the Pacific Coast of North America held two basic assumptions about the killer whale (Orcinus orca): first, it was a voracious predator inclined to attack ...

Ochoa et al, Predation of a Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) by Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) in Guanaja, Honduras, Aquatic Mammals (2025). DOI: 10.1578/AM.51.1.2025.31 ...

Orcinus is derived from the Latin word orcus, which means “of the netherworld.” Originally known as “whale killer,” the orca's common name stems from early whalers' records of the species' predatory ...

Northwest Pacific orcas have started wearing salmon hats again, bringing back a bizarre trend first described in the 1980s, researchers say. Last month, scientists and whale watchers spotted orcas ...

This story appears in the July 2015 issue of National Geographic magazine. There are no orcas to speak of in Western literature. Although they look like mythic creatures, with their sleek bodies ...