Page 75 - (DK) Super Shark Encyclopedia: And Other Creatures of the Deep

FASTEST MOUTH

“Nurse sharks can NURSE SHARK

suck a conch

The gummy-looking mouth of a nurse shark doesn’t
snail right out look very threatening, but this fish relies on suction

rather than biting. It inflates its throat so much—and
of its shell ” opens its mouth so quickly—that any little fish or crab
in its path is sucked inside before it has a chance to get
away. The loud sucking noise it makes sounds like a
nursing baby, and may have given this shark its name.
Its teeth are small but sharply pointed, so it can chomp
through anything that reaches its jaws. Nurse sharks
patrol shallow coastlines mainly at night. By day they
like the safety of each other’s company and spend their
time resting together in dark caves, where they are
often found piled one on top of another.

AT A GLANCE

• SIZE 7¼–14 ft (2.25–4.3 m)
• HABITAT Coastal waters on rocky reefs,
over sand flats, and near mangroves
• LOCATION Atlantic, Caribbean, and
Eastern Pacific coastlines, especially
near the equator
• DIET Bottom-living invertebrates (such
as snails, squid, and crabs) and fish,
hunted at night

STATS AND FACTS
28 MOUTH WIDTH

MAX. YOUNG PER LITTER in 4 6 8
cm 10 15 20 25
5–9½ in
(13–24 cm)
TIME TAKEN TO GRAB PREY

sec 1 ⁄10 2 ⁄10 3 ⁄10
1
1 1 ⁄10– ⁄5 sec
⁄300
TIME TAKEN TO OPEN MOUTH
SEC
73