Page 51 - World of Animals - Book of Sharks & Ocean Predators

Great white sharks
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The great white in numbers

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05-07 20 30 tons 06 300 2530
25 mph teeth ready to 48 % YEARS 03
The rows of
The speed a The number of CM
shark can reach move into a Shark surface The average
prior to an attack frontal position attacks that lifespan of a How much a metres teeth a shark can The amount
to pursue and when one is lost actually result in great white in great white can How long they have in its mouth a great white
catch its prey. or broken. successful kills. the wild. weigh up to. can grow. at any one time. grows per year.
“A great white can smell a seal colony from 2 miles away”

of Natural History points out, bees, wasps and snakes are kills purely to eat and survive. As part of the research
responsible for far more fatalities every year and, in the conducted by Neil Hammerschlag of the University
United States, up to 30-times more deaths occur as a of Miami, Florida, geographic profiling (a police tool

result of lightning strikes per year than from shark attacks. for analysing serial crime) was used to observe shark
In reality, great whites have more in common with behaviour at Seal Island in False Bay, South Africa. Named
ABOVE Propelling itself at speeds of human serial killers than the boat-bashing, mindless for its dense Cape fur seal population, this is one instance
up to 25 miles per hour, the shark’s opportunists of the Steven Spielberg movies. Far from where safety in numbers doesn’t apply. A great white can
Polaris Attack is sudden and deadly killing at random, a study has shown sharks will fi nd a smell a seal colony from over three killometres (two miles)
good hiding spot and return to it time and again, watching away thanks to its super-sensitive snout that’s covered in
BELOW Breaching is a technique

employed frequently by great whites specific victims from afar until an opening presents itself. sensory cells. It can even hone in on faint electrical signals
when hunting surface-dwelling prey The crucial difference, however, is the motive – a shark from hearts and gills. If you’re a living creature in the
ocean, there really is nowhere to hide.
These finely tuned senses are driven into a blood-

thirsty frenzy when this many flippers are found in one
place, making Seal Island a prime spot for studying great
white attacks. But rather than waiting where the seals
congregate, Hammerschlag’s investigation found that
larger, older sharks have well-defined anchor points, 100

metres (328 feet) from the seals’ entry-exit point. It’s not
an ideal location for snatching prey, but he suspects it’s
a balance between prey-detection, capture rates and
competition. They attacked early in the morning when
the light was low, when no other sharks are around and
they preferred victims that were young and alone. Smaller
sharks, on the other hand, didn’t have such distinct lairs
and had lower success rates, suggesting either sharks

refine their strategy with experience, or the larger
specimens are purposefully excluding them from the
“ It can even hone in on

faint electrical signals from

hearts and gills. If you’re a
living creature in the ocean,
there really is nowhere

to hide”

Shark’s eye view
There’s no reason for sharks to see us as their
natural prey, so why do attacks occur? One
theory is mistaken identity. Scientists have
noticed that most incidents happened when
water conditions were poor, so the shark may
have confused a swimmer with their regular
food. Another reason could be that these apex
predators have nothing to fear, leading them
to be incredibly curious. However, there’s no
way of knowing for certain what an unknown
object is without a sample bite. Human surfer Sea turtle Seal

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