Sharks are among the ocean’s most dangerous marine creatures. They are formidable predators to both marine life and humans. Yet, despite their danger, they possess many surprisingly fascinating traits.
Incredible Shark Statistics and Behaviors
A great white shark consumes 11 tons of food per year, whereas humans consume only about half a ton in the same period.
More than 80% of people bitten by sharks survive to tell their story.
Humans kill approximately 73 million sharks annually, while sharks kill 12 people per year. Sometimes, they tend to approach humans who are swimming, just to investigate and then leave. In reality,
sharks rarely choose humans as prey, unless they are hungry or misunderstand humans as a threat. But if that does happen? It would be a toothy, painful, and bloody ordeal.
As the time for giving birth approaches, mother sharks lose their appetite to ensure they don’t eat their own offspring.
Sharks replace their teeth many times. Their teeth don’t fall out due to cavities but often get stuck in their prey.
Although many consider sharks the most dangerous animals in the world, in reality, annually, more deaths are caused by wasp stings or dog bites than by shark attacks. The probability of dying from a falling coconut is higher than from a shark attack!
Tiger sharks, bull sharks, and great white sharks are the species responsible for most attacks on humans. They prey on animals of similar size to humans and have bites that can be fatal.
The great white shark is a notorious human predator. However, they do not like the taste of humans, and often bite then release their victims.
Sharks thrash their prey to tear off flesh. Therefore, we should cling to a shark if bitten if we don’t want to lose limbs.
For self-defense, humans can punch a shark hard on the nose or poke its eyes. Sharks do not want to encounter difficulties when seeking food.
Whale sharks can live up to 100 years!
Sharks have such a keen sense of smell that they can detect a single drop of blood in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Sharks will sink if they stop swimming.
Greenland sharks eat polar bears and have a lifespan of up to 200 years.
Remarkable Shark Biology and Evolution
As their jaws develop, tiger shark embryos begin to attack and eat each other while still in the mother’s womb.
Shortfin mako sharks can accelerate to top speeds faster than a Porsche.
Great white sharks can swim around for months without eating.
Most people commonly believe that sharks give live birth. In reality, a mature female shark can lay eggs up to 14 inches (35 cm) in size, equivalent to a large pizza. These eggs are nourished inside the mother’s body until they hatch. Sharks lay the largest eggs of any animal in the world.
Sharks are believed to have appeared over 420 million years ago, even before dinosaurs.
Sharks possess an astonishingly acute sense of hearing, able to hear prey from distances up to 900 meters. This characteristic makes sharks one of the ocean’s most terrifying predators.
When a mother shark is giving birth, the first sharks born will eat the remaining unhatched eggs. This occurs on both sides of the uterus, resulting in only two surviving shark pups.
A surprising fact is that shark species vary greatly in size. Did you know that whale sharks can be up to 50 feet (15 meters) long, while lantern sharks are only seven inches (15cm) long?
Sharks have terrifyingly strong senses. Basically, sharks, especially great white sharks, are truly innate predators. Not only do they possess incredibly sensitive vision and hearing, but they also have electromagnetic receptors in their noses, allowing them to sense movement from what they perceive as prey. Furthermore, they can detect the smell of blood from hundreds of meters away, equivalent to the combined length of several football fields. Great white sharks can even smell prey from up to 1.5 km away.
