Great white shark. Lifestyle and habitat of the great white shark

Thunderstorm of the seas, white death, ruthless killer - they called this powerful and ancient creature that survived the dinosaurs. His name is great white shark. A more perfect organism simply does not exist in nature.

Description and features of the great white shark

Great white shark (Carcharodon)- one of the largest predators on the planet. It has rightfully earned its notoriety as a man-eating shark: there are a great many recorded cases of attacks on people.

It’s hard to call it a fish, but it really is: the white shark belongs to the class of cartilaginous fish. The term “shark” comes from the language of the Vikings; they used the word “hackall” to describe absolutely any fish.

Nature has generously endowed the white shark: its appearance has not changed over the millions of years that it has lived on the planet. The mega-fish is even larger in size, sometimes reaching 10 m. Great white shark length, according to ichthyologists, can exceed 12 meters.

However, there are only scientific hypotheses about the existence of such giants, biggest white shark, caught in 1945, was 6.4 m long and weighed about 3 tons. Maybe, the biggest in the world of unprecedented size, has never been caught, and dissects the expanses of water at a depth inaccessible to humans.

At the end of the Tertiary period, and by the standards of the Earth this is relatively recent, the ancestors of the white shark, megalodons, lived in the vast depths of the ocean. These monsters reached a length of 30 m (the height of a 10-story building), and their mouths could comfortably accommodate 8 adult men.

Today, the great white shark is the only surviving species of its numerous genus. Others went extinct along with dinosaurs, mammoths and other ancient animals.

The upper part of the body of this unsurpassed predator is colored in a grayish-brown color, and the saturation can vary: from whitish to almost black.

The length of a great white shark can exceed 6 meters

It depends on the habitat. The belly is white, which is why the shark got its name. The line between the gray back and white belly cannot be called smooth and smooth. It is rather broken or torn.

This coloring perfectly camouflages in the water column: from a side perspective, its outlines become smooth and almost invisible; when viewed from above, the darker back mixes with the shadows and bottom landscape.

The skeleton of a great white shark does not have bone tissue, but consists entirely of cartilage. The streamlined body with a cone-shaped head is covered with reliable and dense scales, similar in structure and hardness to shark teeth.

These scales are often referred to as “dermal denticles.” In some cases, it is impossible to pierce a shark's shell even with a knife, and if you stroke it against the grain, deep cuts will remain.

The white shark's body shape is ideal for swimming and chasing prey. A special fatty secretion secreted by the skin also helps to minimize resistance. It can reach speeds of up to 40 km/h, and this is not in the air, but in thick salt water!

Her movements are graceful and majestic, as if she is gliding through the water without making any effort at all. This giant can easily make 3-meter jumps over the surface of the water; it must be said that the spectacle is mesmerizing.

The great white shark does not have an air bladder to keep it afloat, and in order not to sink, it must constantly use its fins.

Good buoyancy is helped by the huge size of the liver and the low density of cartilage. The predator's blood pressure is weak and in order to stimulate blood flow, she also has to constantly move, thereby helping the heart muscle.

Looking at photo of great white shark, with its mouth wide open, you feel awe and horror, and goosebumps run down your skin. And this is not surprising, because it is difficult to imagine a more perfect tool for murder.

Teeth located in 3-5 rows, and white shark they are constantly updated. In place of a broken or fallen tooth, a new one from the reserve row immediately grows. The average number of teeth in the oral cavity is about 300, the length is over 5 cm.

The structure of the teeth is as well thought out as everything else. They have a pointed shape and serrations, making it easy to tear huge pieces of meat from their unfortunate victim.

Shark teeth are practically devoid of roots and fall out quite easily. No, this is not a mistake of nature, rather the opposite: a tooth stuck in the body of the prey deprives the predator of the opportunity to open its mouth to ventilate the gill apparatus, the fish simply risks suffocating.

In this situation, it is better to lose a tooth than to lose your life. By the way, during its life a great white shark replaces about 30 thousand teeth. Interestingly, the jaw of a white shark, squeezing its prey, exerts a pressure of up to 2 tons per cm².

A white shark has about 300 teeth in its mouth

Lifestyle and habitat of the great white shark

In most cases, white sharks are loners. They are territorial, however, they show respect for their larger brothers, allowing them to hunt in their waters. Social behavior is a rather complex and poorly studied issue.

Sometimes they are loyal to others sharing their meals, sometimes it’s the opposite. In the second option, they show their displeasure by baring their mouths, but they rarely physically punish the uninvited guest.

The great white shark is found in the shelf zone near the coasts almost all over the world, excluding the northern regions. This species is thermophilic: the optimal water temperature for them is 12-24°C. The concentration of salt is also an important factor; in the Black Sea it is not sufficient and these fish are not found there.

Great white shark lives off the coast of Mexico, California, New Zealand. Large populations are observed near Mauritius, Kenya, Seychelles, and Guadeloupe Island. These predators are prone to seasonal migrations and can cover distances of thousands of kilometers.

Great white shark nutrition

The great white shark is a cold-blooded, calculating predator. She attacks sea lions, sea lions,... In addition to large animals, sharks feed on tuna and quite often carrion.

The great white shark does not hesitate to hunt other, smaller species of its own kind, as well as. On the latter, they ambush and attack from behind, depriving the victim of the ability to use echolocation.

Nature has made the shark an ideal killer: its vision is 10 times better than that of a human, and its inner ear detects low frequencies and sounds in the infra range.

A predator's sense of smell is unique: a shark is able to smell blood in a 1:1,000,000 mixture, which corresponds to 1 teaspoon in a large swimming pool. The attack of a white shark is lightning fast: less than a second passes from the moment the mouth opens to the final closure of the jaws.

Having sunk its razor-like teeth into the victim's body, the shark shakes its head, tearing off large chunks of flesh. At one time she can swallow up to 13 kg of meat. The jaws of the bloodthirsty predator are so strong that they can easily bite large bones, or even entire prey in half.

The shark's stomach is large and elastic, it can hold enormous amounts of food. It happens that there is not enough hydrochloric acid for digestion, then the fish turns it inside out, getting rid of the excess. Surprisingly, the walls of the stomach are not injured by the sharp triangular teeth of this powerful creature.

Great white shark attacks per person do happen, mainly divers and surfers suffer from this. People are not part of their diet, rather the predator attacks by mistake, mistaking the surfboard for an elephant seal or seal.

Another explanation for such aggression is an invasion of personal space, the territory where she is used to hunting. Interestingly, she rarely eats human flesh, more often she spits it out, realizing that she was mistaken.

Dimensions and the characteristics of the body do not give victims great white shark not the slightest chance of salvation. In fact, among the ocean depths it has no worthy competition.

Reproduction and lifespan

Individuals less than 4 m in length, most likely immature juveniles. Female sharks can become pregnant no earlier than 12-14 years old. Males mature a little earlier - at 10. Great white sharks reproduce by ovoviviparity.

This method is unique to cartilaginous fish species. Pregnancy lasts about 11 months, then several babies hatch in the mother's womb. The strongest eat the weak while still inside.

2-3 completely independent baby sharks are born. According to statistics, 2/3 of them do not live to see a year, becoming victims of adult fish and even their own mother.

Due to long gestation, low productivity and late maturation, the number of white sharks is steadily declining. No more than 4,500 individuals live in the world's oceans.