Flight of a great white shark. White shark White shark body shape

The second article in the series “Summer with Sharks” talks about the famous representative of giant sea predators - the great white shark, memorable to many based on the film"Jaws" Is this huge fish as dangerous and bloodthirsty as is commonly believed?

An encounter with a great white shark in the ocean is somehow not like what one imagines: the fish does not at all look like a bloodthirsty monster, which is talked about in thousands of television programs with chilling intonations in the voice. She is very plump - she looks like a fat sausage - with a mouth that seems to be slightly open in a smug grin, with quivering flabby jowls. In a word, if you look from the side, one of the most dangerous predators on the planet resembles a blue-faced clown. And only when the “clown” turns to face you, so to speak, do you understand why this predator causes such fear - and they fear it almost more than any other animal on the planet. The shark's muzzle no longer seems flabby - it narrows into an ominous battering ram with black, unblinking eyes. The grin disappears, and all you see are rows of five-centimeter teeth protruding from the jaws (when biting, they create a force of 1800 kilograms per square centimeter). The shark is slowly but surely approaching you. Turns his head - first in one direction, then in the other, assessing whether the prey, that is, you, is worthy of spending time on it. Then, if you're lucky, she'll turn around, turning back into a clown, and lazily disappear into the underwater darkness. There are more than 500 species of sharks in the world's oceans, but in the minds of the vast majority of people there is only one. When the Pixar film company needed a villain for the cartoon Finding Nemo, it chose not a harmless nurse shark or an aggressive blunt-nosed shark for this role, or even a tiger shark, which would have looked more at home on the coral reef where Nemo lives. No, it was the great white shark that was grinning from thousands of posters around the world. This fish is a symbol of the World Ocean, but our knowledge about it is very meager - and much of what we seem to know is simply not true. White sharks are not killers blinded by bloodlust (on the contrary, they act carefully when attacking prey), they do not always live alone and are probably smarter than scientists until recently believed. Even the famous series of attacks off the coast of New Jersey in 1916, mentioned in the movie Jaws, may have been the work of a blunt-nosed shark rather than a great white shark. We don't know for sure how long she lives, how many months she bears her offspring, or when she reaches sexual maturity. No one has ever seen great white sharks mate. or produce offspring. We don’t really know how many there are and where they spend most of their lives. If only in California South Africa or Australia, a predator the size of a small truck lived on land, experts would observe representatives of this species in zoos or research centers and study in detail its mating behavior, migration routes, and habits. But underwater there are laws. White sharks appear and disappear as they please, and follow them into depths of the sea almost impossible. They do not want to live in aquariums - some refuse to eat and die of hunger, others attack all their neighbors and smash their heads against the walls. And yet scientists using modern technologies, may already be close to answering two of the most exciting questions: how many great white sharks are there and where they are hiding. This is necessary to know in order to decide how to protect ourselves from white sharks and how to protect them from us, and to understand what the most deserves more. scary predator on the planet - fear or pity.

Brian Skerry A large white shark tears open the surface of the water near the Neptune Islands. Scientists distinguish sharks by their dorsal fins, scars and a jagged line separating the white ventral and gray dorsal parts of the body.

A seven-meter fishing boat bobs on the waves off the southern tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It's a beautiful summer day. The passengers - three scientists, two paying tourists, a couple of journalists and the captain - sat comfortably on the seats, looking towards the island of Nantucket. Suddenly the radio comes to life, and the voice of the observation pilot from a height of 300 meters says in a sharp New England accent: “There’s a great shark just south of you!” Marine biologist Greg Skomal perks up. He stands on a bridge fenced with railings, protruding one and a half meters ahead of the bow of the boat and similar to the board on which pirates pushed those sentenced to death into the sea. If we were in a Hollywood movie, Greg would have a wooden leg and be holding a harpoon. But instead of a harpoon, Greg holds a three-meter pole with a GoPro camera attached to the end. And he beams with joy when the captain starts the engine. Until 2004, virtually no one had seen great white sharks offshore. East Coast USA. From time to time, individual individuals appeared near the beaches or got caught in nets, but this happened very rarely. In general, white sharks gather at certain times of the year in five areas that scientists call “hubs,” similar to airport hubs. The three main hubs are located off the coast of California and Mexican Baja California, the southern coast of South Africa and Australia, where these predators hunt seals. However, the East Coast is not that place: there are not enough seals here. The sharks that swam here were homeless strays. In 2004, one female made her way into the bays near the village of Woods Hole, Massachusetts. For Skomal, who by that time had been successfully tagging other shark species with electronic beacons for twenty years, this was a rare chance: a great white came, one might say, right into his yard! “I thought it was an accident that would never happen again,” he says, a smile playing across his face, framed by tousled gray hair. Over the next two weeks, Skomal and his colleagues followed the shark, which they named Gretel, after the lost girl in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, and eventually equipped it with a beacon. Scientists hoped to track the shark's movements in Atlantic Ocean, but after 45 minutes Gretel’s beacon fell off. “My excitement turned to deep despondency, because I was sure that I had missed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to learn something new about the great white shark,” Skomal recalls. Over the next few years, he thought a lot about Gretel and whether she really was a loner. But in September 2009, fortunately, everything became clear: five great white sharks were spotted from an airplane near the cape. Within a week, Skomal had tagged them all. “I almost went crazy with joy. My heart was beating so hard that it was ready to jump out of my chest. Everything I dreamed of has come true!” Greg says. Since then, great white sharks have returned here every summer. Some scientists have even called Cape Cod a sixth hub. How many sharks are there? To answer this question, let’s look at data from the California hub. The first attempt to count sharks here was in the mid-1980s by Scott Anderson, who at that time was studying seabirds on an island located west of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Anderson and his colleagues tracked the sharks - first visually, then using acoustic beacons and finally using satellites. Over the past 30 years, they have processed data from thousands of observations of individual sharks, which were distinguished by the shape of their dorsal fins, markings on their skin or the characteristic border between their gray back and white belly. It is now known where these sharks gather and what they eat (most of the “observations” returned here from year to year). So, based on such observations, is it possible to determine the number of sharks? In 2011, a group of scientists tried to make such a calculation, and it turned out that only 219 adult sharks live in the Californian waters that are richest in sharks. Even taking into account that the number of predators at the top of the food pyramid is usually much smaller than the number of animals they hunt, this is still negligible. The results of the study stunned the public and were immediately criticized by other experts.

Brian Skerry Biologist Greg Skomal tries to take video of a shark swimming near Cape Cod. IN Lately great white sharks have begun to appear regularly in the waters off a popular beach.

Of course, counting the number of great white sharks is much more difficult than land animals or even marine mammals. Therefore, scientists draw conclusions based on their assumptions about the routes of movement of sharks. In the case of the California coast, the most important assumption was that data from a few feeding sites were generalized to the entire hub. Another group of scientists processed the same data, taking into account other assumptions, and their number of sharks turned out to be ten times larger (although they also counted juveniles). Soon, ichthyologists began counting sharks in other hubs. For example, the population size of South African sharks was estimated at 900 individuals. How big or small are these numbers? Are great white sharks thriving or going extinct? There are about 4 thousand tigers and 25 thousand African lions in the world. Based on the lowest estimates, there are as many great white sharks on the planet as there are tigers, and they are known to be an endangered species. If we take the highest estimates, then these fish are no less numerous than lions - a vulnerable species. Some experts believe that sharks are dying out, while others, on the contrary, see positive changes. Some say that the increase in seal numbers indicates that there are almost no great white sharks left, while others argue that the more seals there are, the more sharks there must be. For example, Australian statistician Aaron McNeil believes that the appearance of sharks off the Cape Cod Peninsula and the increasing frequency of sightings of them in the Southern Hemisphere support an optimistic point of view. “Over the last decade, I don’t see any evidence that there are fewer sharks,” says McNeil. – There was a period of decline in numbers in the past, but today it cannot be said that great white sharks are becoming extinct. Their numbers may be very slow, but they are growing.” Hope remains. Nowadays, if anyone catches great white sharks on purpose, it is very few fishermen - but the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species lists this species as the second most strictly protected category, since fishermen sometimes catch these fish unintentionally. After all, if the number of a species is small, even an accidental catch can deal a crushing blow to its populations - and the great white shark, being a top predator, plays a vital role in the ecology of the oceans. To understand whether great white sharks need our protection, it is necessary to know not only their numbers, but also where they wander. Their migration paths are not as orderly as, say, birds or butterflies. Some sharks follow along the coast, others tack hundreds of kilometers into the open sea. Many white sharks, depending on the time of year, change warm waters to cold ones and vice versa. And males, females and juveniles seem to follow different paths. Today, with long-term satellite beacons, scientists are finally beginning to understand these intricacies. We now know that adult white sharks in California and Mexico leave the coastal zone in late fall and go deeper into the middle of the Pacific Ocean. "It's not at all clear why they go to this area, which some call an ocean desert," says Salvador Jorgensen, a biologist who studies the migration and ecology of great white sharks. “What the hell did they forget there?” Is this the “shark center” where great white sharks mate in a way that no one has ever seen? The water area about which we're talking about, the size of California, and the depths there reach kilometers, and it is difficult to observe sharks. However, satellite data shows that females follow direct routes, while males surface and submerge, probably in search of mates.

This is how an idea of ​​the life of great white sharks of the California coast is gradually formed. After spending the summer and fall hunting seals, they head to ocean depths to begin reproduction. At this time they live off accumulated fat reserves. Then the males return to the coast, and the females swim off to who knows where for a year or so, perhaps to give birth to offspring. The cubs are later shown at feeding grounds (for example, off the coast of Southern California), where they eat fish before they grow large enough to join the older cubs. It's not a complete picture—males and females don't spend much time together, and we don't know where the babies are born—but it explains a lot. For example, as the population recovers, more young are born, which may be why there have been a lot of shark sightings in Southern California lately. In other places, calculations are more difficult to make. Australian sharks feed off the southern coast of the mainland, but they do not seem to have a "center" of their own. As for the Atlantic, our knowledge here is even poorer. “We have rogues and we have coastal sharks. And I have no idea what motivates both,” says Greg Skomal. On a clear August morning, I board a two-seater plane with Wayne Davis, a pilot who spent years tracking tuna and swordfish for fishermen and now helps scientists search for white sharks. It's so shallow here that sharks can be seen from the air. In just half an hour of flight we see seven - all of them patrol areas of the coast near which gray seals feed. On the way back, one and a half kilometers to the north, we fly over beaches crowded with vacationers. So far, local residents are welcoming to their new neighbors. Stores sell toy sharks, T-shirts and posters featuring them, even the local high school's new mascot, a great white shark. Sharks are usually depicted in profile – smiling, looking like clowns. But sooner or later, someone will encounter another version of the great white shark in these waters - the one with teeth. However, these predators make attempts on human life extremely rarely. In California, the likelihood of a surfer being bitten by a great white shark is one in 17 million, according to Stanford University, and even less for people just swimming in the water—one attack per 738 million vacationers. Will we be able to lend a helping hand to this toothy monster, are we ready to take pity on the ruthless monster?

The great white shark is known to many as the man-eating shark, or carcharodon. This animal belongs to the class of cartilaginous fish and the herring shark family. Today, the population of this species slightly exceeds three thousand individuals, so the great white shark belongs to the category of predatory animals that are on the verge of extinction.

Description and characteristics of the white shark

The largest of all modern predatory sharks is eleven meters or a little more in length. The most common individuals are those with a body length of no more than six meters and a weight in the range of 650-3000 kg. The back and sides of the white shark have a characteristic gray coloration with slight brownish or black tones. The surface of the ventral part is dirty white.

This is interesting! It is known that relatively recently white sharks existed, whose body length could reach thirty meters. Eight adults could easily fit in the mouth of such an individual, living at the end of the Tertiary period.

Modern white sharks lead a predominantly solitary lifestyle. Adult individuals can be found not only in the waters of the open ocean, but also near the coastline. As a rule, the shark tries to stay close to the surface, and prefers warm or moderately warm conditions. ocean waters. The white shark destroys prey with the help of very large and wide, triangular teeth. All teeth have jagged edges. Very powerful jaws allow the aquatic predator to effortlessly bite through not only cartilaginous tissue, but also fairly large bones of its prey. Hungry white sharks are not particularly picky about their food choices.

Features of the morphology of the white shark:

• the large cone-shaped head has a pair of eyes, a pair of nostrils and a fairly large mouth;
• There are small grooves around the nostrils that increase the speed of water inflow and improve the predator’s sense of smell;
• pressure power indicators of large jaws reach eighteen thousand newtons;
• the teeth located in five rows change regularly, but their total number varies within three hundred;
• behind the head of the predator there are five gill slits;
• two large pectoral fin and the anterior dorsal fin is of the fleshy type. They are supplemented by relatively small second dorsal, pelvic and anal fins;
• the fin located in the tail is large;
• circulatory system the predator is well developed and is able to quickly warm up muscle tissue, increasing the speed of movement and improving the mobility of a large body.

This is interesting! The great white shark does not have a swim bladder, so it has negative buoyancy, and to prevent sinking to the bottom, the fish must constantly make swimming movements.

A peculiarity of the species is the unusual structure of the eyes, which allows the predator to see prey even in the dark. A special organ of a shark is the lateral line, thanks to which the slightest disturbance in the water is detected even at a distance of a hundred meters or more.

Habitat and distribution in nature

The white shark's habitat is many coastal waters of the World Ocean.. This predator is found almost everywhere except the Arctic Ocean and further along the southern coast of Australia and South Africa.

The largest number of individuals hunt in the coastal zone of California, as well as in close proximity to the island of Guadalupe in Mexico. Also, a small population of great white sharks lives near Italy and Croatia, and off the coastline of New Zealand. Here, small flocks are classified as protected species.

A significant number of white sharks have chosen the waters near Dyer Island, which has allowed scientists to successfully conduct numerous scientific studies. Also, fairly large populations of great white sharks have been found near the following areas:

• Mauritius;
• Madagascar;
• Kenya;
• Seychelles;
• Australia;
• New Zealand.

In general, the predator is relatively unpretentious in its habitat, so migration is focused on areas with the largest number prey and optimal conditions for reproduction. Epipelagic fish are able to choose coastal sea areas with a large number of seals, sea lions, whales and other species of small sharks or large bony fish. Only very large killer whales can resist this “mistress” of the ocean space.

Lifestyle and behavioral characteristics

The behavior and social structure of white sharks has not yet been sufficiently studied. It is known for certain that the population living in waters close to South Africa is characterized by hierarchical dominance in accordance with the sex, size and residence of individuals. The dominance of females over males, and the largest individuals over smaller sharks predominates. Conflict situations during the hunting process are resolved by rituals or demonstrative behavior. Fights between individuals of the same population are certainly possible, but they are quite rare. As a rule, sharks of this species in conflicts limit themselves to not too strong, warning bites.

A distinctive feature of the white shark is the ability to periodically raise its head above the water surface in the process of hunting and searching for prey. According to scientists, in this way the shark manages to capture odors well even at a considerable distance.

This is interesting! Predators enter the waters of the coastal zone, as a rule, in stable or long-formed groups, including from two to six individuals, which is similar to a wolf pack. Each such group has a so-called alpha leader, and the remaining individuals within the “pack” have a clearly established status in accordance with the hierarchy.

Great white sharks are distinguished by fairly well-developed mental abilities and intelligence, which allows them to find food in almost any, even the most difficult conditions.

Feeding of an aquatic predator

Young carcharadons use small bony fish, small marine animals and small mammals as their main diet. Sufficiently grown and fully formed great white sharks expand their diet to include larger prey, which can include seals, sea lions, and large fish. Adult carcharadons will not refuse such prey as smaller species of shark, cephalopods and other most nutritious marine life.

For successful hunting, great white sharks use a unique body color. A. The light coloring makes the shark almost invisible among underwater rocky places, which allows it to track its prey very easily. Particularly interesting is the moment of the great white shark attack. Thanks to its high body temperature, the predator is able to develop quite decent speed, and good strategic abilities allow carcharadons to use win-win tactics when hunting aquatic inhabitants.

Important! Possessing a massive body, very powerful jaws and sharp teeth, the great white shark has almost no competitors among aquatic predators and is capable of hunting almost any prey.

The main food preferences of the great white shark are seals and other marine animals, including dolphins and small species of whales. Eating a significant amount of fatty foods allows this predator to maintain optimal energy balance. Warming of muscle mass by the circulatory system requires a diet consisting of high-calorie foods.

Of particular interest is Carcharodon's hunt for seals. Sliding horizontally in the water column, the white shark pretends not to notice the animal swimming on the surface, but as soon as the seal loses its vigilance, the shark attacks the prey, jumping sharply and almost with lightning speed from the water. When hunting, a great white shark ambushes and attacks from behind, which does not allow the dolphin to use its unique ability - echo location.

intermediate ranks

Carcharodon carcharias Linnaeus,

Taxonomy and origin

Much remains unclear about the evolutionary relationships of the white shark and other living and extinct species of herring sharks. The ancestor of this group was probably Isurolamna inflata, which lived approximately 65 - 55 million years ago and had small narrow teeth with a smooth edge and two lateral denticles. In this family, there is a tendency towards enlargement, broadening and serration of teeth during evolution (the transition from grasping function to cutting and tearing), which led to characteristic appearance teeth of a modern white shark.

Distribution and habitats

Area

The white shark lives throughout the ocean, preferring areas of the temperate coastline, continental and island shelves, usually closer to the surface of the water. Some large specimens also appear in tropical waters. It also sometimes makes spontaneous movements to the area of ​​cold seas - the species has been recorded off the coast of Canada and Alaska. Large individuals are capable of regularly making long ocean voyages. It can also be located at a decent depth - a case was recorded of catching a white shark at 1280 meters using bottom fishing gear along with a sixgill shark. Observations show that at least large individuals tolerate a fairly wide range of environmental temperatures - from cold seas and the ocean floor to tropical coasts. At the same time, smaller individuals (less than 3 m) are more common in temperate latitudes.

Habitat areas

The main centers of white shark aggregation are the coastal waters of American California and Mexican Baja California, Australia and New Zealand, the Republic of South Africa and, once, the Mediterranean. It can be found in the East Coast of the USA, off the coast of Cuba, the Bahamas, Argentina, Brazil; in the Eastern Atlantic - from France to South Africa; in the Indian Ocean appears in the Red Sea, off the coast of Seychelles, as well as off Reunion Island and in the waters of Mauritius; in the Pacific Ocean - from the Far East to New Zealand and the west coast of America.

Migrations

Anatomy and appearance

The white shark has a strong, large, conical head. The width in the upper lobe and in the lower lobe (at the tail) is the same (as in most herring sharks). The white shark has a protective coloration: it is white on the underside and gray on the back (sometimes with a brown or blue tint), giving the impression of mottled coloring, which makes the shark difficult to spot because its body visually breaks up when viewed from the side. When viewed from above, the dark shadow dissolves into the thickness of the sea, and when viewed from below, the silhouette of the shark is barely noticeable against the background of the light. White sharks, like many others, have three rows of teeth. The teeth are serrated, and when the shark bites and shakes its head from side to side, the teeth cut and tear off pieces of flesh like a saw.

Dimensions

The size of a typical adult white shark is 5-6 meters with a mass of 600-3000 kg. Females are usually larger than males. The maximum size of a white shark is a hotly debated topic. Richard Ellis and John E. McCosker, recognized scientific experts on sharks, devote an entire chapter to this issue in their book The Great White Shark (1991), in which they analyze various reports of maximum sizes.

For several decades, many works of ichthyology, as well as the Book of Records, cited two specimens as the largest: a 6.9 m long shark caught in southern Australian waters near Port Fairy in the 1870s, and a 7.3 m long shark. caught in a herring trap at a dam in New Brunswick, Canada in 1930. Reports of the capture of specimens measuring 7.5 meters in length were common, but the above sizes remained a record.

Some researchers have questioned the validity of the measurements in both cases, since these results were significantly larger than any other results obtained through precise measurements. The New Brunswick shark may have been a basking shark rather than a great white, as both sharks have a similar body shape. The question of the size of the Port Fairy shark was clarified in the 1970s when G.I. I. Reynolds examined the shark's mouth and found that the Port Fairy shark was about 5 meters in length. He suggested that an error had been made in the original measurement in 1870.

Ellis and McCosker estimated the largest specimen that has been reliably measured to be 6.4 meters in length, which was caught in Cuban waters in 1945. However, even in this case, there are experts who argue that the shark was actually several feet shorter. The unconfirmed weight of this Cuban shark is 3270 kg.

Nutrition

Young sharks feed on small fish, tuna. Grown-up sharks switch to feeding on seals and do not shy away from the carcasses of dead whales. Their light coloration makes them less noticeable against the background of underwater rocks when they are stalking prey. Their high body temperature makes them faster and smarter than most sharks, which is essential when hunting seals. Fatty foods are needed to maintain a high temperature. The blood vessels that carry blood to the skin transfer heat to the blood vessels that send blood in the opposite direction to reduce heat loss. The white shark first attacks seals horizontally, like fish, but then changes its habit and attacks from below so that the prey does not notice it until the last moment. Sometimes a shark mistakes people for seals and attacks, but when they feel bones in their teeth instead of seal fat, they let them go. And since these predators usually swim in a school, there may be several bites. When attacking, it rolls its eyes to protect them from the claws of its victims.

Reproduction

Notes

1. Reshetnikov Yu. S., Kotlyar A. N., Rass T. S., Shatunovsky M. I. Five-language dictionary of animal names. Fish. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of academician. V. E. Sokolova. - M.: Rus. lang., 1989. - P. 23. - 12,500 copies. - ISBN 5-200-00237-0
2. Great White Sharks are now more endangered than tigers with just 3,500 left in the oceans | Mail Online
3. Carol Martins & Craig Knickle WHITE SHARK (English) . Education. Florida Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2011.
4. Jim Bourdon Carcharodon (English). The Life and Times of Long Dead Sharks(2009). Archived from the original on June 5, 2012. Retrieved May 12, 2012.
5. R. Aidan Martin Fossil History of the White Shark (English). ReefQuest Center for Shark Research. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
6. Compagno L.J.V. Part 2 - Carcharhiniformes // Sharks of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalog of shark species known to date / Pere Oliver. - Rome: FAO, 2001. - Vol. 2. Bullhead, mackerel and carpet sharks (Heterodontiformes, Lamniformes and Orectolobiformes). - P. 100-107. - 269 p. - (FAO Species Catalog for Fishery Purposes). - ISBN 92-5-104543-7
7. Ramón Bonfil; Michael Meÿer, Michael C. Scholl, Ryan Johnson, Shannon O'Brien, Herman Oosthuizen, Stephan Swanson, Deon Kotze and Michael Paterson2

Perhaps the most dangerous and formidable predator of the world's oceans is the white shark. According to the scientific classification, white sharks belong to the chordate type, the herring family, the class of cartilaginous fish, the superorder of sharks and the order of lamniformes.

What are its characteristics, weight, length, appearance? Where does the white shark live and is it dangerous to humans? This will be discussed in detail below.

Great white shark Carcharodon

Great white shark, known to science just like carcharodon, it is a large predatory fish that lives in all waters of the world's oceans with the exception of the Arctic. This predator got its name thanks to white color belly, which is clearly separated from gray back with a broken line.

Average Carcharodon length exceeds 7 meters, and its weight is at least 3 tons. This rightfully suggests that such a fish is the largest on earth. It can only compete with whale and basking sharks, which are not dangerous to humans and feed mainly on plankton.

But not only the size of the carcharodon inspires horror in all living things, because such a predatory fish is firmly entrenched in the minds of people as a merciless killer, ready to attack at any convenient opportunity. That's right: these giant predatory fish are known for attack water sports enthusiasts(divers, surfers, swimmers).

And according to statistics, the chances of salvation from such a predator are much less than when falling under the wheels of a truck: if a carcharodon begins to pursue and attack its prey, then it does not stop until it finally tastes human flesh.

Interestingly, the great white shark is on the verge of extinction, and there are only only about 3500 individuals. As mentioned earlier, this predator belongs to the herring family, which also includes a number of sharks:

• regular mako;
• long-finned mako;
• Pacific salmon;
• Atlantic herring.

Carcharodon is believed to be one of the oldest organisms on the planet, and this opinion was given impetus by the research of scientists who came to the conclusion: the white shark is close relative megalodon, which became extinct 5.5 million years ago. However, at the same time, other scientists believe that Carcharodon is still closer to the mako shark than to the ancient megalodon.

Great white shark range

The great white shark can be found in all waters of the world's oceans, where the temperature is not lower than 12 degrees and not higher than 24 degrees. In more cold water these predators are extremely rare. It is also interesting that such fish live both in salt water and in lightly salted and desalinated water.

Interesting fact: such a predator does not live and could not live in the Black Sea. This is explained by the fact that the water here is too fresh, and in the Black Sea there is not enough food for the survival of this predatory fish.

Carcharodon can be found on the coast USA, Canada, Guadeloupe, Argentina, Chile, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, as well as off the coast of Croatia and Italy, Portugal and North Africa. By the way, this species is protected in New Zealand.

Largest population lives off Dyer Island, which is in South Africa. Scientific research on these predatory fish is also carried out there.

White sharks settle in the seas. They feed on fur seals, whales, and large bony fish. And only a large killer whale can terrify this predator.

Like most other sharks, Carcharodon has a spindle-shaped, streamlined body, a conical head, small eyes, nostrils and a wide mouth. The teeth of this fish are very sharp. They are triangular in shape and have small notches on the sides.

The approximate number of teeth varies from 280 to 300, with their help the predator easily deals with prey. All Carcharodon teeth arranged in 5 rows. The replacement of the first row of teeth occurs in young individuals once every three months, and in adults - once every eight months.

The white shark also has gills, which are located on the sides of the head (5 gill slits on each side). The color is typical for all similar fish: belly white, back gray. Thanks to this transition from one color to another, this predator can easily hunt in the water column and at the same time remain invisible.

On the back of Carcharodon there is one fin, two on the chest. The tail has a fin with two equally sized blades. Carcharodon have a very developed circulatory system, which warms up the muscles and allows the predator to swim quickly.

The interesting thing is that this fish no swim bladder, because of which she has to be on the move all the time, otherwise she will simply start to drown. But, obviously, such anatomy does not in the least prevent it from living for millions of years in the depths of the seas and oceans.

Dimensions: how much does a white shark weigh and what is its length

For many years, ichthyologists have been conducting research and arguing about the size of this formidable predator and how much such a fish weighs. One of the largest white sharks was recognized as being caught at the end of the 19th century in Australian waters, which was almost 11 meters long.

Another larger specimen was caught off the coast of Canada in the first half of the 20th century. His length was 11.3 meters.

If we talk about the average sizes of carcharodon, they are as follows:

• average shark - from 4 to 5.2 meters in length and 700-1000 kg in weight;
• large shark - from 6 to 8 meters in length and 3500 kg in weight.

As a rule, females are larger than males. A large shark can be called one whose size is from 6 meters to 7.5 meters. The largest white shark can reach 12 meters in length.

And yet, scientific debate continues to this day. Ichthyologists question the facts about the captures of the largest carcharodons, since the difference in size between them and other white sharks is too great.

Scientists believe that the record numbers most likely relate not to carcharodons, but to giant sharks, the ones that feed on plankton. Moreover, the fact of catching big shark off the coast of Australia and Canada it was recorded not by scientists, but by ordinary fishermen.

To date, the largest size of Carcharodon is considered length 6.4 m and weight 3270 kg.

What does Carcharodon eat?

Juveniles feed on small bony fish, small marine animals and mammals.

More mature individuals hunt fur seals, sea lions, shellfish, large fish, even other sharks and whales.

Thanks to their color, these predators can easily camouflage themselves while hunting, and heat body allows them move quickly and catch your prey. And also thanks to active movements, active brain activity occurs, thanks to which this predator is able to come up with clever strategies during the hunt.

By the way, about attacks on people: very often surfers and swimmers with their body movements remind Carcharodon of the same harbor seals, so she can actively attack them.

But here it is worth taking into account the fact that these predatory fish prefer fatty foods. Therefore, having bitten a person and tasted him, the shark swims away in disappointment. So the opinion that such predators feed on human flesh is very erroneous.

White shark (Carcharodon carcharias)

general description

The white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), which is more correctly called Carcharodon, reaches particularly significant sizes - the largest of the modern predatory sharks. Its back and sides are gray, brown or black, and its belly is off-white. The largest specimen of this species measured was 11 m in length, although even larger specimens appear to occasionally occur. The usual size of a white shark is 5-6 m with a weight of 600-3200 kg. At the same time, sharks about 4 m long have not yet reached sexual maturity. It is interesting to note that until relatively recently (at the end of the Tertiary period) there were white sharks (species Carcharodon megalodon), reaching about 30 m in length.

Eight people could easily fit in the mouth of such a shark. The modern white shark leads a solitary lifestyle and is found both in the open ocean and off the coast. This shark usually stays near the surface, but can descend into the deep layers of water: one specimen was caught even at a depth of about 1000 m. The white shark is widespread in the warm waters of all oceans, and is also found in moderately warm waters. Its occurrences are noted, in particular, in the southern part Sea of ​​Japan, off the coast of Washington state and California, on the Pacific coast of the United States and even off the island of Newfoundland.

This species is characterized by very large (up to 5 cm in height) and wide teeth, triangular in shape and roughly serrated along the edges. Very powerful weapons jaws gives the white shark the opportunity to inflict terrible damage on its prey and bite through the bones and cartilage of victims without much effort, and the wide mouth and pharynx allow this giant shark to swallow very large pieces. Apparently, the white shark is not particularly picky in its choice of food, although most often other sharks were found in the stomachs of caught individuals, which it apparently preys on. In this case, relatively small sharks (sometimes exceeding 2 m in length) are usually swallowed intact, while larger ones, such as a giant shark, are torn into pieces.

Carcharodon's food also includes relatively small fish (mackerel, sea bass), tuna, seals, fur seals, sea otters, and sea turtles. This shark does not even disdain carrion and waste: in the stomach of one specimen, caught near Sydney, pieces of a horse, a dog and a leg of lamb were found among other food, and in another, caught off the coast of South Africa, half a kid, two pumpkins and a bottle of wicker case. The white shark is one of the sharks most dangerous to humans. There have been many recorded cases of this shark attacking people in the water, as well as boats.

In recent years alone, more than 100 such attacks have been documented, and this is undoubtedly only a small part of them. Most attacks were fatal, and only a few victims were lucky enough to save their lives, escaping with the loss of a limb or other serious injuries. White shark attacks have been recorded not only in open waters, but also near the coast - in bays and on beaches. It is not for nothing that in Australia this shark is called the “white death”. It is believed that attacks on humans are carried out only by individual “stray” individuals of this species. So, in 1916, off the Atlantic coast of America (New Jersey), five people were attacked by a shark off the coast over the course of 12 days. Only one of them survived. After a white shark was caught in the area, the attacks stopped.

Scientific Classification

Kingdom: Animals
Type: Chordata
Class: Cartilaginous fish
Superorder: Sharks
Order: Lamniformes
Family: Herring sharks (Lamnidae)
Genus: White sharks (Carcharodon)

Origin

The great white shark (Latin Carcharodon carcharias) - also known as the white shark, white death, man-eating shark, Carcharodon - is an exceptionally large predatory fish found in the surface coastal waters of all the Earth's oceans except the Arctic.

Great white shark This predator owes its name to the white color of the abdominal part of the body, with a broken border on the sides separated from the dark back.

Reaching a length of over 7 meters and a mass of over 3000 kg, the great white shark is the largest modern predatory fish (excluding whale and basking shark, feeding on plankton).

In addition to its very large size, the great white shark has also acquired a notorious reputation as a merciless cannibal due to numerous attacks on swimmers, divers and surfers. A person has much less chance of surviving an attack by a man-eating shark than under the wheels of a truck. A powerful moving body, a huge mouth armed with sharp teeth and a passion for satisfying the hunger of this predator will leave the victim no hope of salvation if the shark is determined to profit from human flesh.

The great white shark is the only surviving species of its genus Carcharodon. It is on the verge of extinction - there are only about 3,500 specimens left on Earth.

The first scientific name, Squalus carcharias, was given to the great white shark by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Zoologist E. Smith in 1833 assigned the generic name Carcharodon (Greek karcharos sharp + Greek odous - tooth). The final modern scientific name of the species came into being in 1873, when the Linnaean species name was combined with the genus name under one term, Carcharodon carcharias.

The great white belongs to the herring shark family (Lamnidae), which includes four other species sea ​​predators: Mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus), longfin mako shark (Longfin mako), Pacific salmon shark (Lamna ditropis) and Atlantic herring shark (Lamna nasus).

The similarity in the structure and shape of the teeth, as well as the large size of the great white shark and the prehistoric megalodon, has led most scientists to consider them closely related species. This assumption is reflected in the scientific name of the latter - Carcharodon megalodon.

Currently, some scientists have expressed doubts about the close relationship of Carcharadon and Megalodon, considering them to be distant relatives belonging to the family of herring sharks, but not so closely related. Recent research suggests that the white shark is closer to the mako shark than to the megalodon. According to the theory put forward, the true ancestor of the great white shark is Isurus hastalis, while megalodons are directly related to sharks of the species Carcharocle. According to the same theory, Otodus obliquus is considered a representative of the ancient extinct branch of Carcharocles megalodon olnius.

Photo White shark (click to enlarge):

Distribution and habitats

The great white shark lives throughout the world in coastal waters of the continental shelf, the temperature of which ranges from 12 to 24 degrees Celsius. In colder waters, great white sharks are almost never found. They also do not live in desalinated and slightly salted seas. For example, they were not found in our Black Sea, which is too fresh for them. In addition, there is not enough food in the Black Sea for such a large predator as the great white shark.

Habitat of the great white shark

The habitat of the great white shark covers many coastal waters of the warm and temperate seas of the World Ocean. The above map shows that it can be found anywhere in the middle ocean belt of the planet, except, of course, the Arctic Ocean. In the south they are not found further than the southern coast of Australia and the coast of South Africa. Great white sharks are most likely to be found off the coast of California, near the Mexican island of Guadalupe. Individual populations live in the central part of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas (Italy, Croatia), off the coast of New Zealand, where they are protected species. Great white sharks often swim in small schools.

One of the most significant populations has chosen Dyer Island (South Africa), which is the site of numerous scientific studies of this species of shark. Great white sharks are relatively common in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Mauritius, Madagascar, Kenya and near the Seychelles. Large populations persist off the coasts of California, Australia and New Zealand.

Carcharodons are epipelagic fish; their appearance is usually observed and recorded in coastal seas, abundant in prey such as fur seals, sea lions, whales, where other sharks and large bony fish. The great white shark is nicknamed the mistress of the ocean, since no one can compare with it in the power of attacks among other fish and sea inhabitants. Only the large killer whale terrifies Carcharodon. Great white sharks are capable of long-distance migrations and can descend to considerable depths: these sharks have been recorded at depths of almost 1300 m.

Recent research has shown that great white sharks migrate between Baja California, Mexico, and a spot near Hawaii known as the White Shark Cafe, where they spend at least 100 days a year before migrating back to Baja California. Along the way, they swim slowly and dive to a depth of approximately 900 m. After arriving at the coast, they change behavior. Dives are reduced to 300 m and last up to 10 minutes.

A white shark tagged off the coast of South Africa has revealed its annual migration route to the southern coast of Australia and back. Researchers have found that a great white shark completes this route in less than 9 months. The entire length of the migration route is about 20 thousand km in both directions.

These studies refuted traditional theories, according to which the white shark was considered an exclusively coastal predator.

Interactions have been established between different populations of white sharks, which were previously considered separate from each other. The purposes and reasons why the white shark migrates are still unknown. There are suggestions that migrations are caused by the seasonal nature of hunting or mating games.

Photo White shark (click to enlarge):

Anatomy and appearance

The body of the great white shark is spindle-shaped, streamlined in shape. A large, conical head with medium-sized eyes and a pair of nostrils located on it, to which small grooves lead, increasing the flow of water to the olfactory receptors of the shark. The number of teeth in the great white shark, like in the tiger shark, 280-300. They are located in several rows (usually 5). The body color of great white sharks is typical of fish swimming in the water column. The ventral side is lighter, usually dirty white, the dorsal side is darker - gray, with shades of blue, brown or green. The large and fleshy dorsal fin, two pectoral and anal fins are located on the body of the great white shark in places usual for sharks. The plumage ends with a large caudal fin, both blades of which, like all salmon sharks, are the same size.

Dimensions

The usual size of an adult great white shark is 4-5.2 meters with a weight of 700 - 1000 kg. Females are usually larger than males. The maximum size of a white shark is about 8 m and weighs more than 3500 kg. It should be noted that the maximum size of a white shark is a hotly debated topic. Some zoologists and shark specialists believe that the great white shark can reach significant sizes - more than 10 or even 12 meters in length.

Among the features anatomical structure, it should be noted that great white sharks have a highly developed circulatory system, which allows them to warm up their muscles, thereby achieving high mobility of the shark in the water. Like all sharks, great whites lack a swim bladder, requiring them to constantly move to avoid drowning. Although, it should be noted that sharks do not feel any particular inconvenience from this. For millions of years they managed without a bubble and did not suffer from it at all.

The great white shark is the only surviving species of its genus Carcharodon. It is on the verge of extinction. The white shark is a nurse and a regulator of the number of other organisms.

Photo White shark (click to enlarge):

Nutrition

Great white sharks are predators, and primarily feed on fish (including rays, tuna and smaller sharks), dolphins, whale and pinniped carcasses such as seals, fur seals and sea lions, and occasionally sea turtles. At times they attack sea otters and attack penguins, although this happens very rarely. It is also known that these sharks are not able to digest food. Most of the four-meter white shark's diet consists of mammals. These sharks prefer prey that is high in energy-rich fat. Shark researcher Peter Klimley used seal, pig and sheep carcasses as bait in his experiments. The sharks attacked all three baits, but rejected the sheep carcass.

The great white shark is a predator whose only real threat is humans. Although the white shark's diet overlaps with that of killer whales, they do not compete directly. However, in one famous incident, a female killer whale killed a pre-adult white shark, after which her calf feasted on the shark's liver. Small pods of dolphins are capable of killing a great white shark through a mob attack in which the dolphins ram the shark.

Great white sharks' reputation as ferocious predators is well deserved, but they are by no means indiscriminate eaters (as was once believed). The ambush hunting technique, when a shark attacks its prey from below, is typical for them. Near the now famous Seal Island, in South Africa's False Bay, studies have shown that shark attacks most often occur in the morning, within two hours of sunrise. The reason for this is that at this time it is very difficult to spot a shark near the bottom. The attack success rate is 55% in the first 2 hours, it drops to 40% late in the morning and then the sharks stop hunting.

The white shark's hunting technique varies depending on the species it preys on. While hunting seals near South Africa, a great white shark ambushes the seal from below and strikes the seal in the midsection at high speed. They move so fast that they actually emerge from the water. After an unsuccessful attack, she can continue to pursue her prey. As a rule, the attack occurs on the surface of the water.

When hunting northern elephant seals near California, the great white shark immobilizes the prey by biting the hindquarters (which is the elephant seal's main source of movement) and then waits until the prey dies from blood loss. This technique is usually used when hunting adults, which can be larger in size than a shark and are potentially dangerous opponents.

When hunting dolphins, white sharks attack them from above, behind or below to avoid detection through the echolocation that dolphins use.

Photo White shark (click to enlarge):

Behavior

Behavior and social status The white shark has not been well studied, but a recent study suggests that white sharks are more social than previously thought. In South Africa, white sharks appear to have a hierarchy of command based on size, gender and privilege. Females dominate males, larger sharks dominate smaller sharks, and long-time residents dominate new arrivals. When hunting, white sharks tend to maintain a large interval between each other, and resolve all conflict situations among themselves by resorting to ritual performances. They rarely resort to bites during these battles, although some individuals have been found to have bite marks left by other white sharks. It can be assumed that when someone invades their personal space, the white shark gives the intruder a warning bite. Some experts think that the white shark delivers gentle bites to other individuals, thus demonstrating to them its superiority.

The great white shark is one of several shark species that regularly raises its head higher
sea ​​surface to peer closely at other objects such as prey. This behavior has also been observed in at least one group of reef sharks, but in this case it may have been driven by human interest (sharks are better at picking up odors this way because they travel faster through air than through water). Sharks are very curious animals and can show a high degree of intelligence and
individuality when conditions allow it.

Photo White shark (click to enlarge):

Reproduction

Any Living being strive to produce similar offspring for themselves, which will continue the existence of the species, genus, family and will not allow this family chain to disappear in the ruthless battle of evolutionary selection. Each generation, according to Charles Darwin’s theory, is endowed with increasingly reliable survival mechanisms. For many millions of years, sharks, without a moment’s respite, defended their right to exist in the seas of our planet. So far they have succeeded and are succeeding quite well. What is the mechanism of reproduction of their own kind in these amazing fish?

Sharks, like everyone else cartilaginous fish, reproduce by internal fertilization, when the reproductive products of the male are introduced into the body of the female and fertilize her reproductive products. However, in different species of sharks, the reproductive process may differ, primarily in the way the offspring emerge from the mother's egg. There are oviparous, ovoviviparous and viviparous sharks.

Oviparous sharks reproduce by eggs enclosed in a hard, sometimes covered with outgrowths, protein shell, on top of which there is usually a horny protective layer. Oviparous polar shark The shell on the eggs is formed during passage through the oviduct through the female's albumin and shell glands. It protects the embryo from dehydration, eating by predators, mechanical damage, and allows groups of eggs to be suspended on algae. The eggs of oviparous sharks are large and contain a lot of nutritious yolk. Typically, from 1-2 to 10-12 eggs are laid at a time, and only the polar shark lays up to 500 large eggs at a time, resembling goose eggs, about 8 cm long. The eggs of the polar shark are not enclosed in a cornea, unlike the eggs of other oviparous species sharks The embryonic development of the embryos is slow, but the hatched baby shark differs from the adult only in size and is capable of independent life.

More than 30 percent of all known shark species are oviparous. These are mainly bottom-dwelling representatives of the shark tribe that live off the coast, although there are exceptions (polar shark). The method of reproduction of sharks by oviposition is similar to the reproduction of many reptiles and even birds.

In ovoviviparous sharks, which include the majority of modern species (more than half), the egg develops in the body of the female. The hatching of offspring also occurs there. You can imagine this process as the birth of a fry from an egg that did not have time to leave the female’s body. In this case, the cubs hatch and remain inside the mother for some time, eventually being born well developed and adapted for independent existence. In some species of sharks, after using their yolk sac, the young eat unfertilized eggs accumulated in the uterus and even eggs from which their brothers and sisters did not have time to hatch. This phenomenon is called "intrauterine cannibalism." Such “cannibals” include sand, herring and some other species of sharks. As a result of such intrauterine selection, the strongest and most developed cubs are born, although their total number in the litter is not large.

A pair of sharks The period of gestation in ovoviviparous species of sharks has not been precisely determined by scientists. It is believed to range from several months to 2 years (katran), which is one of the longest gestation periods of any vertebrate.

Apparently, the method of reproducing offspring by ovoviviparity is, in a rough sense, a transition from reproduction by eggs to viviparity. Although, it is quite possible that nature provided just such a mechanism of reproduction for some species of animals, it did not receive further development during the evolutionary revision. However, the method of reproducing offspring by ovoviviparity in sharks and rays has existed for many millions of years and is still used today, i.e. is a fairly reliable reproduction mechanism.

Species of sharks that reproduce by ovoviviparity include, for example, the giant shark, which every two years brings 1-2 offspring of 1.5-2 meters each, the tiger shark, which gives birth to up to 50 sharks annually. This is apparently the maximum fecundity among ovoviviparous sharks.

During a live birth, an embryo develops in the female’s body, receiving nutrition from the mother’s circulatory system. The yolk sac, after using the yolk, grows to the wall of the female’s uterus, forming a kind of placenta, and the embryo receives oxygen and nutrients from the mother’s bloodstream through osmosis and diffusion. This method of reproduction already corresponds to the method of reproduction of higher animal organisms. There are also intermediate options between ovoviviparity and viviparity.

Just over 10 percent reproduce by live birth. existing species sharks These include frilled shark, blue shark, some species of hammerheads, mustelids, saw sharks and many types of gray sharks. So, for example, the litter of a female frilled shark can number from 3 to 12 babies, in blue and hammerhead sharks their number can reach up to three dozen, in a long-finned oceanic shark - no more than ten.

Males have paired testes, which are suspended in the liver area on special stretch marks - mesenteries. The ducts of the seminiferous tubules of the testes (vases deferens) lie in the mesentery and empty into the renal tubules of the anterior narrow part of the kidney. This part of the kidney does not function as an excretory organ, but is converted into an appendage of the testis. The testicular tubules of a male shark open into the so-called Wolffian canal, which functions as a vas deferens. In the very rear part of the vas deferens, in sexually mature males an expansion is formed - the seminal vesicle.

The vas deferens on the right and left sides of the male’s body open into the cavity of the urogenital papilla. Next to them, openings of thin-walled hollow outgrowths - seed sacs - open in the same place. These are the remains of the so-called Müllerian canals. The ureters also empty into the cavity of the urogenital papilla. The urogenital papilla opens into the cavity of the cloaca with an opening at its apex. The formation of male germ cells occurs in the testicular tubules. Not yet mature spermatozoa enter the appendage of the testis - the anterior part of the kidney - through the seminiferous tubules and mature in its tubules. Mature sperm pass through the vas deferens and accumulate in the seminal vesicles and seminal sacs. When the muscles of the walls of the seminal vesicles and sacs contract, sperm are squeezed into the male's cloaca, and then, with the help of copulatory organs (pterygopodia), are introduced into the female's cloaca. Pterygopodia are formed from the rays of the ventral fins of the male; females do not have these formations.

The reproductive and urinary tracts of females are separated along their entire length. Females have paired ovaries, which are located in the shark’s body in much the same way as the testes of males. In immature females, the ovaries even resemble the testes of males in appearance.

The Wolffian canal in females performs only the function of the ureter. Müllerian canals are laid on the abdominal surface of the corresponding kidney. In most sharks, the anterior ends of the Müllerian canals, which perform the function of oviducts in females, go around the anterior end of the liver and, merging, form a common funnel of the oviduct, which lies at the ventral surface of the central lobe of the liver and has wide fringed edges. In some species of sharks, each female oviduct ends in a funnel. In the area of ​​the anterior part of the kidneys, each oviduct forms an extension - a shell gland, which is highly developed only in sexually mature individuals. The extended posterior part of the female's oviduct is called the "uterus". The oviducts of the right and left sides open into the cloaca with independent openings on the sides of the urinary papilla.

It should be noted that there is a certain unpleasant moment for the female during the process of mating with a male in many species of sharks. Literally male. rapes the female, brutally holding her by the fins and other parts of the body with his teeth during mating. Such “love caresses” often leave scars and numerous injuries on the body and fins of female sharks.

Internal fertilization, common to all sharks. Large eggs with significant reserves nutrients and strong shells, ovoviviparity and viviparity in many shark species dramatically reduce embryonic and postembryonic mortality of offspring. This is very important, since sharks cannot be as careless about reproduction as most bony fish, which reproduce by laying thousands and even millions (sunfish) of eggs. However, most parent sharks cannot be called caring “ancestors” - newborn sharks that did not have time to hide in time can be happily eaten by a hungry mother.

Interestingly, in some species of sharks, cases of parthenogenesis have been observed, when the female gave birth to offspring without the participation of a male individual. Apparently, this is a kind of protective mechanism against the extinction of the species due to reproduction without the participation of males.

Similar cases have been reported in some aquariums, i.e. when keeping a female in captivity.

Photo White shark (click to enlarge):

Relationship with people

One of the most dangerous inhabitants of the seas and oceans is the white shark, a video of which is available on the website. Powerful jaws Carcharodon are armed with sharp triangular teeth. Hard fangs are capable of not only tearing flesh, but also crushing strong bones.

It is not surprising that this predator can handle not only fish and squid, but also such strong animals as seals and elephant seals. An attacking white shark delivers a devastating bite, and then, shaking its head from side to side, tries to inflict as severe wounds on the victim as possible.

In this way, she completely demoralizes her prey, suppressing its will to resist. At the same time, the hunter does not forget about caution and her own safety. When lunging at a seal, the shark rolls up its eyes to protect them from its sharp claws. If the opponent is particularly strong, the carcharodon may release its prey after the first powerful bite and wait until the victim is exhausted from blood loss.

This tactic helps the white shark successfully hunt pinnipeds. Interestingly, young predators learn mainly from their own experience. At first they attack the seals horizontally, but then they realize that it is better to deliver the decisive blow from below. In this case, the cat has much less chance of escaping danger.

Carcharodon's coloration helps it successfully camouflage itself before it attacks. A large white shark in video footage of a sea lion hunt appears completely unexpectedly, jumping several meters out of the water and simultaneously capturing prey with its powerful jaws.

It seems that the seal has no chance of salvation at all. However, in reality this is not the case. If a potential prey notices an attacking predator in time, it can escape the attack into the “dead zone” above the shark’s dorsal fins. In this case, the missed carcharodon temporarily loses sight of the prey, and it has the opportunity to escape.

Why is the white shark a very dangerous predator?

The white shark is not only the largest, but also one of the fastest among all its close and distant relatives. It develops high speed of movement not only thanks to its streamlined spindle-shaped body and powerful fins.

A special network of blood vessels allows you to saturate the muscles with oxygen as efficiently as possible. Due to this, over short distances, Carcharodon can develop particularly high speeds. However, such jerks require large amounts of energy, to replenish which you need fatty and high-calorie foods.

Therefore, it cannot be said that a person is of any gastronomic interest to a white shark. Typically, carcharodon attacks on people are either the result of accident or are provoked.

We can see a white shark in the video attacking a cameraman in a cage. Although the structure is intended for protection, the scuba diver feels very uncomfortable when the predator hits the bars with powerful blows. But it wasn’t the shark that swam to the beach, it was the observers with their cage, equipment and bait that invaded the underwater world.

Of course, large selachians are dangerous predators. And the most formidable of them is the white shark, which has a reputation as a man-eating shark. However, in their normal habitat, these predators do not interact with humans in any way. The white shark gained its sad popularity primarily thanks to horror films, where it is presented as a ruthless, bloodthirsty killer.
White sharks and relationships with people

Documentary films shot in recent years show that this is not at all the case. White sharks in the video are doing the usual daily life, hunting mainly fish and pinnipeds.

If people invade their habitat, then the reaction of predators depends primarily on human behavior. In the video footage, you can see how white sharks react peacefully to scuba divers who behave respectfully towards them.

Photo White shark (click to enlarge):