Alice White
There are many species of sharks in the world, although the word “shark” seems to most of us a huge killer fish from some Hollywood horror movie that terrifies coastal waters. In fact, not all shark species are dangerous to humans, and those that can harm or kill, not so often cause the death of an unwary diver.
- Sharks don’t feel pain.
- The largest shark that has ever lived on earth is the megalodon, now extinct. According to the fossil remains, megalodons were thirty meters long.
- Some shark species can be called very fast fish – they develop speeds up to 50 km / h.
- At the same time, the Greenland shark, by the way, which is a delicacy in Iceland, swims at a speed of only 2.5 km / h.
- Sharks cannot sleep. The fact is that they can pass water through the gills, taking oxygen from it, only during swimming, since the shark gills at rest cannot “suck” water themselves. Thus, sharks never sleep, otherwise, they will simply suffocate.
- Sharks have eyelids, but they never blink anyway.
- Occasionally, white sharks even swim into the Black Sea.
- Sharks are able to sense blood diluted in seawater in a ratio of one in a million. Yes, their sense of smell is really very, very sharp.
- A kind of “compass” for sharks is the natural magnetic field of our planet, which these fish are able to feel.
- The shark’s eye is capable of taking almost twice as many frames per second as the human eye.
- Hearing in sharks is about half that of humans.
- Contrary to the widespread myth about the danger of sharks, the shark occupies one of the last places in the list of potentially dangerous aquatic creatures for humans.
- The place where the largest number of shark attacks on humans is recorded is the coast of the United States, Florida.
- An adult white shark is able to bite into steel bars as thick as the little finger.
- The largest white sharks ever caught weighed about 3.5 tons and reached ten meters in length.
- The great white shark is a formidable predator, however, killer whales hunt it with pleasure.
- The average adult white shark consumes about 11 tons of food annually.
- In captivity, white sharks do not live, refusing food and preferring death by starvation to imprisonment.
- The skin of a tiger shark is about ten times stronger than the skin of an adult bull.
- Unlike the white shark, the tiger shark will attack even inedible objects. Moreover, they will do their best to devour them. Even wooden barrels have been found in the stomachs of tiger sharks.
- A bull shark can live in freshwater.
- By the way, of all sharks, most attacks on people (up to half, according to statistics) are made by the bull shark, and not at all by the great white.
- The number of teeth in different species of sharks varies from thirty pieces to fifteen thousand.
- The largest shark is the whale shark, while it has the smallest teeth, only about 6 millimeters long.
- During the hunt, the white shark can jump out of the water to a height of three meters.
- A tiger shark, clenching its jaws, can easily split the shell of a large turtle.
- In most cases, the shark attacks only a weaker opponent than it. That is why usually the shark before the attack circles around the victim – she studies it and considers whether it is worth it to mess with her.
- The weight of a baby whale shark can reach hundreds of kilograms.
- The longest-lived shark is the polar one, which lives in cold waters near Antarctica. She can live up to two hundred years.
- Some shark species grind their teeth, communicating in this way with their relatives.
- The closest relative of sharks from a biological point of view is the stingray.
- The northern shark daily consumes food in an amount comparable to half the weight of its own body.
- An Angel shark is a fish as flat as a flounder.
- The northern shark eagerly hunts for seagulls, jumping out of the water and catching gape birds.
- Lemon shark is quite tameable. But you need to handle these fish with caution – they are very vindictive, oddly enough.
