Orcas have been known to slap around stingrays, punt seals into the air and otherwise play with their food. But orcas, or killer whales, don’t just toy with live prey. Some also seem to enjoy destroying the corpses of their kills like piñatas.
Scientists documented this brutal activity in the Gulf of California in 2024 and 2025. In both cases, one adult orca held a dead sharp-tail sunfish steady. A second then slammed into it with enough force to smash the sunfish to smithereens.
Killer whales might pulverize sunfish to break them into smaller bites for young orcas. Or they might just find it entertaining.
@sciencenewsofficial Orcas are known for brutal hunting tactics. A researcher has filmed one using a new strategy.
Kathryn Ayres/Getty Images/happywhale/Footage of the World/Waluyo 66/500px #Orca #killerwhale
Researchers shared the findings July 23 in Frontiers in Ethology.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked,” says Marianne Nyegaard. “I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.” Nyegaard is a marine biologist at Auckland Museum in New Zealand who did not take part in the work. She’d seen a couple videos of orcas battering sunfish on social media. The new paper now does a deep dive into this behavior.
Nyegaard is not surprised that orcas have come up with a creative way to deal with sharp-tail sunfish. Those humungous fish can get up to a few meters (10 feet) long.
“Orcas will do all sorts of things,” Nyegaard says. “They are so clever at figuring out how to hunt and deal with a ton of different prey types.” That hunting is often a team sport. Orcas band together to ambush blue whales and whale sharks. They also team up to make waves to knock penguins off ice.
Orcas most likely smash sunfish into small pieces to help feed their young, says Francesca Pancaldi. After one of the sunfish explosions described in the paper, a young orca fed on the small bits of carnage, she notes. Pancaldi is a marine biologist who also was not involved in the study. She works at the marine science center in La Paz associated with Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute.
Feeding may not be the only reason orcas play sunfish piñata, Pancaldi adds. “Killer whales are highly social animals.” A single activity, she explains, can provide nutrition, help orcas bond and offer a way for young orcas to learn how to hunt.