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Orcas are well known to prey on just about everything that lives in the ocean, even including great white sharks. Yet in a lot of cases I know that the food chain is not unidirectional, there are many cases where even so-called apex predators will get attacked and eaten if they are weak and let their guard down (the eternal rivalry between lions and spotted hyenas comes to mind).

My question is this, are there any known cases of orcas being killed and eaten by another non-orca marine mammal (i.e., not humans)? Such as a lone adult without a pod being attacked, or a calf being taken when it's mother wasn't looking?

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  • $\begingroup$ Since orcas are difficult to observe, such an event has likely not been observed even if it happens. For example, members of even relatively well-observed pods like those in the Salish Sea area (Pacific Northwest) are almost never observed to die. Rather, they are deemed dead after not being observed for perhaps a year or two. $\endgroup$
    – Armand
    Commented Jun 21, 2021 at 17:12
  • $\begingroup$ This Orca Network births and deaths page may be useful: orcanetwork.org/Main/… $\endgroup$
    – Armand
    Commented Jun 21, 2021 at 17:16

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No, there are no known cases (unless anecdotal evidence from lifelong marine mammal observers exists, which is possible).

The best candidate for such a phenomenon would be the sperm whale due to its large size and the presence of teeth. Baleen whales could potentially injure an orca, but would not be able to eat it. However, I think even in the case of sperm whales, killing and eating an orca would be very improbable for a couple of reasons.

1 teeth size and function sperm whales have external teeth only in the lower jaw, and generally swallow prey whole 1. They cannot effectively grasp or tear prey, which would make it very difficult for them to eat an orca even if they wanted to.

2 previous accounts of interactions Accounts of interactions between sperm whales and orcas suggest that orcas are not scared of sperm whales, and that sperm whales avoid orcas when possible and engage only in defensive behaviors during interactions. This article in pictures documents an interaction between orcas and multiple male sperm whales in which the sperm whales are successful at avoiding the orcas, but do not attack them. Playback experiments such as this one have noted that playing orca calls cause sperm whales to stop foraging efforts and spend more time at the surface, again suggesting that sperm whales are more likely to try and get away from orcas than they are to ever willingly attack them.

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