Friday, February 17, 2012

Beyond GREAT White Sharks

When you think of great white sharks you might think of a man eating monster that with any luck you never meet, but there is much more to them than big teeth — 2.5 inch long teeth by the way.

When a shark is born, along with up to 12 siblings, it immediately swims away from its mother. This is for the reason that the mother sees the pubs (baby sharks) as prey. They are 5 feet at birth, but can grow nearly three times that!

These sharks are the top of the food chain, but while they are young they must feed on fish, rays, and other smaller sharks. If they survive the first year, their diets begin to consist of sea mammals such as seals or the occasional sea lion. To gain such a rewarding meal, they use the never failing element of surprise. They strike from under at up to 34 miles an hour (for adult males) then bust out of the water in a leap called a breach, then fall back into the water with their prey in their mouth. They do not chew their prey though, they rip it into chunks then swallow whole. After a large meal such as a sea lion, they do not need another meal for one to two months!

These sharks give birth after about 13 years of life. Some can weigh up to 4,500 pounds! Although human attacks are very rare, most common shark attacks are the work of the great white, tiger shark, or bull shark. Most of these happen in the United States. These sharks actually don't have bones, other than their teeth. Their skeleton is made completely out of cartilage. These guys were around for about 35 million years! So next time you think of a shark, don't think of a man eating beast, think of an exotic creature of the deep!

— Kennedy S.

1 comment:

  1. wow!i thought great white sharks only ate fish like... well i thought they ate fish. i never new how big they were. i mean i new they were big but not that big! ive always been kinda scared. but that report changed my mind!

    ReplyDelete