Click me
Transcribed

The Science Behind Great White Shark Predation

GREAT WHITE SHARKS And how do they hunt? The reality about these astounding creatures 1 3 South Africa is home to one of the world's mostfearedsea creatures: Great White Sharks. Most people fall vicitim to the common misconception that this animals' appearance correlates with their level of aggression towards humars. In reality, it is a selective animal that only hunts to survive. Hammerschlag and his team have conducted a 10 year research study in False Bay, where he monitored the sharks in the area without physically touching them. He was able to discover how they hunt and how they can be further protected as they are endangered species. The shark's hunting Success rate decreases Seal after its first try. The more the seal tries to defend itself, the harder it gets to hunt it. 4 Island Shark's View From Below Where do they live? Bottom Table Bay Stellenbosch The seal makes From the bottom The shark hits the After the impact 1. its way through the ocean as seal with an extremely powerful force. During the ambush, both the shark has an the shark lands Cape Town ideal view of the back into the seal. It swims rapidly upwards to surprise the shark ocean andstarts eating. The seal will satisty him for approximately one full month. approaches silently watching Seal Island animals fly out of the water. the seal from the attack the bottom. defersless prey. SOUTH AFRICA Çape Town Sealrange where sharks Facts and characteristics hunt False Bay Great Whites can reach speeds up to 25 MPH when trying to ambush its prey. Big seals are a threat to sharks because of biting and scratching. Als o, seals can reverse direction as quickly as a shark. Cape Point 200 m. depth contour Atlantic Ocean Indian Ocean 10 KM 25 MPH Most Great White Sharks are concentrated in the above mentioned lighly shaded region and tend to concentrate in warm waters. Great Whites congregate in False Bay not only because of the warm temperature, but because there is als o a large seal colony that lives on Seal Island. The triangle extending from the Island depicts the range of the seals that leave and return to the island. Said triangle is the area where most sharks wait to attack their prey at dawn. Dawn provides the ideal hunting conditions because of murky water and limited visib ility. These sharks are approximately three times as large as a human and the biggest ever recorded was 20 t. Big sharks have more focused and centered anch or points in order to hunt as they exclude the small sharks from the better spots. 3X Scaling in ft. o 12 15 Conservation efforts Great Whites' biggest threats are humans who hunt them for their fins. The big problem with this is that they reach sexual maturity at 15 years of age and have an 11-month gestation period. This me ans they can't reproduce as fast as they are being predated. According to the IUCN Red List, some countries including South Africa have implement- edlaws protecting them from predation. Produced by lan Perchik Sources: RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program N. Hammerschag

The Science Behind Great White Shark Predation

shared by SharkTagging on Feb 24
4,896 views
14 shares
0 comments
This infographic is a visual representation of cutting edge marine research from the University of Miami's RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program. It was created by Ian Perchik, an undergraduate studen...

Publisher

Neil Hammerschlag

Designer

Ian Perchik

Category

Science
Did you work on this visual? Claim credit!

Get a Quote

Embed Code

For hosted site:

Click the code to copy

For wordpress.com:

Click the code to copy
Customize size