Big White shark, the heroine of P. Benchley’s novel “Jaws” and the film of the same name, has a bad reputation as a cannibal. Yes, this is the world's largest predatory fish and an excellent hunter. But is she as bloodthirsty towards people as we are shown in various films?
In Australia it is called the “white death”, but you can encounter it not only here, but in almost all coastal waters of the main oceans, except the Arctic. She has chosen both cold temperate and warm tropical waters.
Small colonies of white sharks are periodically found off the southern coast of Australia, off the coast of California and South Africa, in the Red Sea, in the central part of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of New Zealand, in the Caribbean Sea, near Madagascar, Kenya, the Seychelles and the coast of Mauritius. These, of course, are not all the places where you can accidentally encounter this formidable mistress of the seas and oceans.
Habitat of the great white shark But still, ichthyologists managed to find a couple of places beloved by white sharks. The first is near Hawaii, where they are found in hundreds. Scientists have nicknamed this place “White Shark Cafe.” It is a great place to observe and study the life of these animals. And the second is the coastal waters of Dyer Island (South Africa).
From time to time, great white sharks migrate. There are 2 main routes: the first runs from Baja California (Mexico) to the White Shark Cafe (White Shark Cafe) and back, and the second from the coast of South Africa to the southern coast of Australia. So far, none of the scientists can say for sure what causes such annual migrations.
The shark spends most of its time in the upper layer of water. But sometimes it can dive to depths of up to 1000 meters.
Great white shark has a close characteristic features, which distinguish it from other species. Firstly, its size. Average length adult is 2.5-3.5 meters, there are larger specimens - up to 5-6 meters. Some argue that this is not the limit and white sharks can grow up to 7 meters, but no reliable facts have been found about this. The largest specimen caught on this moment The shark is believed to be 6.4 meters long, caught in 1945 in Cuban waters. A 5-6 meter shark can weigh from 700 kg to 2.5 tons.
Secondly, protective painting. The shark's back and head are dark gray. This allows it to remain undetected by prey swimming above, as its dark shadow disappears into the deep blue water. The lower part of the oblong body is light. When I look at the shark from below, I understand that its light belly allows it to “get lost” at the surface of the water against the background of the light sky.
Gray back and white belly Thirdly, body shape. The white shark has a large conical head. Large pectoral fins aid in holding powerful body afloat.
And fourthly, its powerful jaws with huge teeth, which are the ideal murder weapon. The pressure force with which a shark compresses its jaws is almost several tons per 1 cm2. This allows the predator to easily bite large animals in half or bite off any part of the human body.
Shark smile 
Like many sharks, its teeth are arranged in 3 rows. Each tooth is equipped with serrations, which serve as a kind of saw when tearing pieces of meat from the body of prey. If the front teeth are lost, they are quickly replaced by the back ones.
White shark tooth with jagged edge White sharks also became famous for their keen sense of smell and complete indiscriminateness in food. Special sensory organs on the nose (“ampoules of Laurence”) allow them to capture and recognize the slightest electrical impulses and odors over long distances, and this primarily concerns the smell of blood. They can smell 1 drop of blood in 100 liters of water. Therefore, when hunting, sharks rely solely on their instincts. But their vision is poor.
In principle, white sharks attack people only in very rare cases. The main reason for this is lack of food. These are fish, tuna, seals, squid, sea lions, other sharks and dolphins. Hungry sharks become very aggressive and are ready to rush at any object they see or feel, be it a person or various waste. While searching for prey, they can get very close to the shore.
Their favorite “dish” are fat sea lions, seals or big fish. Fatty foods provide them with energy and help maintain high temperature bodies. These sharks cannot be called voracious either. Due to the special structure of their stomach (they have a “spare” stomach), they do not eat every day.
White shark attack tactics are varied. It all depends on what the shark has on his mind. These formidable predators are very curious animals. The only way For her, studying her object of curiosity means trying it out. Scientists call such bites “research.” They are most often obtained by surfers or divers floating on the surface, whom the shark, due to its poor eyesight, mistakes for seals or sea lions. Having made sure that this “bony prey” is not a seal, the shark can lag behind the person, if it is not too hungry, of course.
A great white shark attacks with a lightning-fast lunge from below. At this moment, she tries to inflict a powerful bite on the victim, which gives little chance of survival. Then the huntress set sail short distance so that the victim, in attacks of defense, would not be able to injure her muzzle, bleed a little and become weak.
Female white sharks give birth to two pups. In this species, as in some others, a common phenomenon is cainism, when stronger and more developed young eat their less developed “brothers and sisters.” In sharks, this happens even inside the female, when 2 more developed cubs begin to eat all the other sharks and unfertilized eggs.
Curiosity is not a vice According to official statistics Every year from 80 to 110 people are attacked by sharks (considered total recorded attacks of all types of sharks), of which 1 to 17 were fatal. If we make a comparison, people kill about 100 million sharks every year. And which of them should be called a dangerous predator?
White shark - among the many sea inhabitants(lat. Carcharodon carcharias) has long caused fear and speculation, which often turns out to be just a figment of people’s imagination. And the white predator itself, as if in mockery of humanity, has been simply improving its qualities as the most cunning underwater predator for millions of years.
Man-eating shark, jawed predator, White death- whatever people called this graceful, ominously mysterious, intelligent and organized animal. She really instilled and instills animal fear in people with just her appearance in the sea. Of all shark attacks on humans, a third are attributed to the great white shark. The predator lives in all coastal waters with temperatures ranging from 12 to 24 degrees Celsius. She lives on average 30 years, and reaches sexual maturity only at 15 years.
However, the deeper scientists and enthusiasts study this predator, the clearer the understanding becomes that the largest predatory fish in the world is not as deadly as the overly exaggerated rumors say. Many different studies and underwater recordings, as well as various and often dangerous experiments, have shown that humans are by no means the favorite delicacy for the great white shark.
When a white shark attacks
Often fatal shark attacks on a person occur because the person behaves too carelessly and forgets that one should not get close to it, for example, not to dive into the water in the hunting areas of the white predator.
This animal can even cause admiration, and not just fear, because the great white shark is one of the most armed predators in the world for hunting, since it has a very sensitive sense of smell, excellent hearing, vision, tactile and taste sensations and electromagnetism.
What does a white shark look like?
It has the body of a torpedo. Some individuals can reach a length of up to 12 meters, and their weight approaches three tons.
The shark has a white or very light belly, and top part bodies are gray, brown or green - so the great white shark is almost invisible in the depths of sea water. Seals, whales, fur seals, dolphins and other sharks are terrified of its huge mouth with triangular teeth arranged in several rows. The shark tears the flesh of the victim with its upper jaw, and holds it with its lower jaw.
This shark has an amazing ability to maintain its temperature higher than the temperature of the surrounding water. Therefore, it is considered a warm-blooded animal, just like all mammals. And besides, the great white shark has the most perfect sense of smell on the planet.
White shark's sense of smell
The sense of smell greatly influences the life of a shark, so two-thirds of the brain of the largest marine predatory fish is spent on its work.
Great white sharks are able to smell a substance dissolved 1 in 25,000,000 in water at a fairly large distance - 650 m.
White shark can catch electricity
The beautiful predator has a head that is unique in its ability to detect an electrical signal better than any modern laboratory, and human abilities exceed millions of times.
The great white shark has a special eye structure - like a cat, and is able to see prey in the dark, and a special organ of the shark - the lateral line - allows it to detect the slightest disturbances in the water at a distance of over 100 meters.
White shark breeding
It is noteworthy that great white sharks become predators even before they are born. Usually up to 5 sharks are born in the belly of a shark, but only one will be born. It is she who will devour all her brothers and sisters before they are born. Pregnancy lasts 11 months and occurs once every two years and a white shark is born.
Watch a video about how a great white shark lives in nature:
more about the white shark:
This oceanic predator is one of the largest and most aggressive fish. The color of the back and sides of a great white shark can be black, brown or gray, but the belly is always white, which is the reason for its name.
The average length of these marine inhabitants is about 5-6 meters, while the weight can reach from 600 to 3200 kilograms.
But there are also real giants: for example, once it was possible to record a white shark whose length was 11 meters, and according to scientists, this is far from the limit. Those individuals whose length is less than four meters are considered adolescents and have not yet reached sexual maturity.
Scientists have established fun fact: Great white sharks existed back in the Tertiary period, and their length at that time reached thirty meters. The mouth of this monster was so huge that if this species had survived to the present day, eight people could easily fit in it. But such a neighborhood could hardly promise anything good for a person.
Big shark- a real fossil animal. The great white shark is a loner by nature. It lives in almost all corners of the world's oceans, and in open waters, and in coastal ones. Typically, the white shark prefers the upper layers of water, but if necessary, it can go down to the depths without feeling any discomfort. There was a case when this predator was caught at a kilometer depth. These Marine life They prefer warm waters, but also swim to temperate latitudes. The female, after giving birth to cubs, leaves no more than two alive; she simply eats the rest.
The white shark has huge teeth, triangular in shape and reaching five centimeters. Moreover, their edges have jagged edges. The jaws of this fish are so powerful that it can easily bite through the bones and cartilage of its prey, so there is practically no chance of salvation for anyone who gets into the teeth of this predator. It is noteworthy that the teeth of a great white shark are located in several rows, so if the teeth front row are damaged, teeth from the back rows move out in their place.
It takes only a few seconds for a great white shark to swallow a prey that crosses its path. She cannot be called any special gourmet; she eats almost everything, including even representatives of her own species. Almost intact bodies of victims, the length of which reached two meters, were found in the stomachs of caught white sharks. If the potential prey is larger than this size, the shark tears it into pieces and then eats it. This fish does not refuse smaller food. Their prey could be sea bass, mackerel, tuna, seals, sea otters, . She does not disdain garbage and even carrion.
This type of shark is the most dangerous to humans. They very often
From this article you will learn how long do sharks live. Sharks are one of the most interesting ocean representatives. They populate depths of the sea for more than five hundred (500) million years.
Instant reply: currently there are about one hundred ( 100 ) shark species. Various representatives These creatures differ in life expectancy. Long-lived sharks can live over 80 years(for example, a whale shark).
How long do sharks live - in detail by species
Sharks are ancient representatives of our planet. The fact is that these animals inhabited the Earth more than 450 million years ago. Some varieties have hardly changed over such a huge period of existence.
- Centenarians- polar sharks. Their age can exceed one hundred years, and according to scientific research - even 200. This is due to an incredibly weak metabolism. Researchers believe that this is one of the longest-living animals on our planet to date.
- Lifespan of a whale shark - up to 75 years.
- Lifespan giant shark is approximately 50 years.
- The white shark lives much shorter - up to 30 years.
- Very rare view - a largemouth shark can survive up to 50 years, and its long-livers are up to one hundred years. But this cannot be confirmed in any way, since since its discovery in 1976, only a couple of dozen representatives of this species have been identified.
- Life expectancy is enormous hammerhead shark sometimes it can be about 50 years.
- The Mako shark is one of the most hot-tempered and evil species sharks Its maximum lifespan may be slightly longer 30 years for females and slightly less for males.
How long do sharks live - Polar
Not long ago, ichthyologists noticed an amazing feature according to which those living in colder water live longer among sharks.
This applies specifically to polar sharks. They believe that for them the indicator is a hundred years is not the limit at all, and such representatives of sharks are able to live longer. Exactly how many is not yet clear due to the difficulty of identifying ages.
Arctic sharks have an incredibly slow metabolism, they seem to live in a dream, which is why they are called sleepy sharks.
Second position occupied by large species of sharks, which is natural, because for all living things one can notice this law: larger types live longer than small ones. They need more time to grow. In the tropics, the average lifespan of sharks is up to 30 years, and in middle latitudes - up to 45 years.
How long do white sharks live?
Researchers recently concluded that white sharks can live much longer than previously thought. Taking advantage the latest technology By clearly determining the age of shark tissue, researchers were able to identify a male white shark who lived up to 70 years old.
According to scientists, such a discovery has incredible important for animal protection, since data on the lifespan of the type, the speed of its development and the time of reaching puberty will help create programs for the conservation of the species.
Previously, researchers tried to determine the age of a predator by counting growth rings in tissue (for example, in a vertebra). But the shark skeleton contains cartilage, and the division between the rings is difficult to discern even with a microscope.
Currently, researchers have been fortunate to identify a radioactive marker in certain rings.
This marker is an isotope that fell into the ocean simultaneously with sediment after testing atomic bomb in the 60s. It settled in the tissues of animals that lived at that time.
The researchers used traces of radioactive carbon in the form of some kind of stamp, with which they can calculate and calibrate the tissue layers in order to then more accurately determine the age of the samples obtained.
Past considerations of animal remains from the Indian and Pacific Oceans led researchers to believe that white sharks live for about 30 years.
But the radioactive marker significantly increased this indicator: the largest male lived 73 years old, and the female − 42 . All animals lived in Atlantic Ocean, but scientists do not believe that there is any significant difference in the life expectancy of sharks from other oceans.
If the hypothesis that the average lifespan of a white shark is 70 years, will be confirmed, it will be possible to call this species one of the most long-lived types of cartilaginous fish. But at the same time, the white shark is one of the most vulnerable inhabitants of nature, since it is one of the main hunting items.
And if sexual maturity in such sharks occurs very slowly, then it will be quite difficult for them to restore their numbers after any significant damage.
In addition, as scientists have already learned, white sharks are far from the most prolific of the great variety of cartilaginous fish - the female is capable of producing only a couple of cubs in the litter(researchers still have not figured out how many times a female white shark can give birth during her life).
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Carcharodon, or as it is also called "white death", lives in warm sea waters. It belongs to the order “lamniformes”, the family “herring sharks”.
This is one of the types of sharks that are the most aggressive, and they are the ones that attack humans.
Appearance
An adult reaches from 4.3 m to 6.2 m. At the same time, females are larger; their size is from 4.7-5.4 m, and their weight is from 1,500 to 2,500 kg. The average length of males is from 3.6 to 4.2 m, with a weight of 600-1,200 kg.
But there are also large individuals, their sizes reach up to 7 meters and weight up to 3,100 kg. She has an elongated strong body with a cone-shaped head. The body has gills and fins. The nose is the most important organ with which, like a dog, it can smell its prey or even a small amount of blood dissolved in a huge amount of water, this is about a drop of blood per 115 liters of water.
The most interesting thing about the white shark’s appearance is its huge teeth (up to 5 cm), growing in three rows. They are comparable to the teeth of a saw, thereby helping it hold prey or tear it into pieces if it cannot be swallowed whole.
If a tooth wears out or falls out, a new one grows in its place, resulting in several rows. The first row of teeth is mainly used, while the back ones serve as spare ones; in case of replacement, they are pushed out in place of the front ones.
But the teeth are not the worst thing, since her jaw squeezes the victim with a force of several tons per square centimeter, so the victim does not have the slightest chance of escaping from the mouth of this bloodthirsty predator. Its color is similar to a camouflage suit. The belly is white, and the sides and back are gray, with blue or brown tint, which gives her the advantage of not being noticed.
From below, it merges with the bright sky. From above, it is lost in the depths and thickness of the water, and from the side it visually breaks up into a light and dark spot, so the victim most often does not suspect that danger is already very close.
The caudal fin has the same length and width, both above and below. There are also five pairs of long gills on the body. The mouth resembles a wide, curved arc. There is a triangle-shaped fin on the back. On the chest there are long, large fins in the form of a spiral.
Habitats
Carcharodon is an inhabitant of the seas and oceans. He loves and feels very good in warm water. The water should be from 10 to 25 degrees above zero.
Most often they are closer to the surface of the water, but there are cases when the fish is almost at the bottom, withstanding low temperatures. As a rule, these are large individuals. White sharks mainly live in the south of the Sea of Japan.
They also live off the coast of the American continent. You can also find them on:
- Cuba;
- Bahamas;
- Argentina;
- Brazil;
- In the Indian Ocean;
- Seychelles;
On reefs, shallows and rocky capes, she gets her food and therefore her main patrol is there, as well as those areas that are inhabited by pinnipeds: seals, sea lions.
Lifestyle
This fish likes to lead a solitary lifestyle. She must swim, since she lacks a swim bladder, to provide herself with enough oxygen. The speed is 3.7 km/h.
These sharks have what is called dominance. Females are several times larger than males, older ones are larger than younger ones, and large ones are larger than smaller ones. When meeting individuals of their family, they behave more than friendly, but if the matter does not concern some personal territory, in this case one shark can bite another, thereby making it clear who is in charge in this case.
While searching for food, they rarely fight, resolving their conflicts with their own special behavior or a separate ritual. This shark is also known for the fact that it sticks its head out of the water, so it is better for it to see its prey and catch its scent, which is better captured in the air than in the water.
During an attack, the shark lifts its nose so that its grin comes to the fore and crashes into the victim. After which she, using special movements tears off part of the victim's body. A large individual that attacks large prey is capable of tearing off a piece weighing 65-75 kg. These predators are very curious and intelligent. They can communicate with each other if any situation requires it.
Reproduction.
The shark reproduces very slowly, since puberty occurs at 11-15 years in females, while in males this threshold is 10-11 years.
This is a viviparous fish that gives birth to one, less often two, young in 1 year. Gestation lasts about 10-11 months. After birth, the baby shark already has teeth, thanks to which it immediately begins to hunt and lead a predatory lifestyle. Due to the large gap between puberty and low fertility, sharks are facing extinction.
Lifespan
IN wildlife This type of shark can survive for more than 45 years.
Nutrition
Almost everything that floats in the water is a shark's food source. These include mammals, turtles, birds, fish, as well as:
Carrion also becomes an object of consumption, for example dead whales. The hunt takes place in the morning. The predator prefers solitary hunting, but the smell of blood, as a rule, attracts other relatives.
Thanks to her sense of smell, it is not difficult for her to detect even a small drop of blood at a distance of several kilometers.
After a hearty meal, this type of fish can for a long time remain without food. Exact amount The food eaten is not known for certain. There is an opinion among scientists that her appetite and portions of food consumed directly depend on the temperature of the water. As you know, metabolism occurs much faster in it than in cold water.
In general, Carcharodon eats when the opportunity presents itself. He eats, even if he has just had a big meal.
Shark and man
This shark is one of the most aggressive species of its relatives. She attacks people more often than others. More often than not, this happens out of curiosity. A shark, biting a person, tries to understand what it is, and it also bites sticks, surfboards and buoys.
She may also confuse her usual diet: a turtle or a pinniped, with a surfer, since they are similar on the surface of the water.
This type of fish is in great demand in the sport fishing industry. Once hooked, it can offer enormous resistance, which only adds excitement to this type of fishing. After she ends up on deck, the fishermen take her life, but they don’t eat the meat because; The urine it secretes passes through the muscles.
Security
This species is on the verge of extinction and extermination. Now the hunt for the white shark is open, as its jaw, teeth and fins are worth a lot of money. Frequent attacks on sharks by killer whales, which turn the shark on its back, after which the shark drowns, have also been recorded.