Large sharks are eating other large sharks in shocking new discovery
If you are a shark, you’re gonna need to have a bigger bite radius as scientists behind a new study have discovered that large sharks are eating other large sharks.
It comes after a tagged pregnant female porbeagle, which grows to 12 feet in length and is one of the closest relatives of the great white, started sending back strange data after five months.
Temperature from the tag spiked, leading researchers to conclude that this shark was now in the stomach of an even bigger shark. From comparing evidence from the diving pattern, it is most likely to be the largest predatory fish in the ocean, a great white shark.
Study author Dr Brooke Anderson, a former graduate student at Arizona State University, said: “In one event, the (porbeagle) population not only lost a reproductive female that could contribute to population growth, but it also lost all her developing babies.”
In some respects, it has always been a shark eat shark world, with larger sharks eating smaller sharks well-documented, as is shark cannibalism, with mothers often eating their young or siblings eating one another in the womb. But this is a whole new kettle of fish (devouring each other).
Before, the apex predators only had to contend with man – thanks to overfishing and catching sharks for their fins – and the spectre of Orca attacks, but now they are going to have to watch their heads, their tails, their whole damn things from each other.
Further reading
The researchers say that this could be something that has occurred for a long time and is perhaps something we’ve only just discovered about shark behaviour, so more research and evidence is needed.
Dr Anderson said: “We often think of large sharks as being apex predators.
“But with technological advancements, we have started to discover that large predator interactions could be even more complex than previously thought.
“We need to continue studying predator interactions, to estimate how often large sharks hunt each other.”
Either way, this is serious news for shark populations and there already depleting numbers, which in-turn means it could have a massive impact on the ecosystems of the world’s oceans and all who benefit from it, including us.
The research findings were published in the biology journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
Words by Dean Newman
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