Page 89 - (DK) Super Shark Encyclopedia: And Other Creatures of the Deep

SCHOOL CHASER

BRONZE WHALER

A giant school of little fish can sometimes satisfy the
appetite of the biggest sharks. Bronze whalers get their
name from their coppery color and the fact that they
have been seen snacking on dead whales. These sharks
cannot resist the annual migration of sardines that moves
along the South African coast. Bronze whalers are the
most common sharks to be drawn to the spectacle, and
arrive in large numbers, with each shark diving deep into
the school to feast on the tightly packed bundles of prey.

AT A GLANCE

• SIZE 7¾–9½ ft (2.4 m–2.9 m) long

• HABITAT Warm and subtropical ocean
waters, mainly near coastlines; it also enters
estuaries and lower reaches of some rivers
• LOCATION Warm coastlines of all oceans
and the Mediterranean Sea
• DIET Fish, stingrays, spiny dogfish, squid,
cuttlefish, and octopuses

STATS AND FACTS

ACTIVITY Females and young
most active (during Males active
sardine run in June–July) all year around Sardines follow
currents of cool water
when they migrate
January December
during the southern
winter months of June
and July. The migration
DIET
entices many bronze
Other prey 35% whalers, including
females and young that
have been spending
their time in shallower
Sardines 48% Cuttlefish 17%
FISHY FEAST nursery waters.
The bronze whaler snags MATURITY AGE
mouthfuls of sardines with its 13 years (male)
sharply pointed teeth. There
are so many of the little fish
that even when large groups of 20 years (female)
sharks arrive, they make little
impact on the schools.
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