The great hammerhead shark is one of the apex predators found in coastal, warm waters around the world. According to Oceana, they are solitary animals and can migrate long distances upward of up to 756 miles (1,200 kilometers) alone, online scalloped hammerhead sharks.
Their diet is mainly composed of smaller fish, octopuses, squid, and crustaceans. But they are also known to eat other sharks and engage in cannibalism, as shown in wild footage shared on one social media platform.
Wild Footage Shows 1,300-Pound Hammerhead Shark Stalking, Eating 6-Foot Shark off the Florida Coast
Massive Hammerhead Shark Stalks, Then Feasted on Smaller Shark
Shocking footage of a great hammerhead shark feasting on a 6-foot shark was shared on social media by TikTok user blacktiph, Newsweek reported. The onlookers filmed the wildlife event of the hammerhead shark stalking and slowly approaching the smaller shark. One person can even be heard saying in the video: "Look at the size of that."
@blacktiph When a 1300lb hammerhead shark eats a 6ft shark! #nature #sharks #drone #wildlife #hammerhead ♬ original sound - Blacktiph
It can be seen that the hammerhead shark was able to catch up with the smaller shark and immediately sank its jaws into it, feasting on the smaller shark while its large body engulfed it. The man behind the camera can be heard laughing in shock at how giant the hammerhead shark was and about the extraordinary display of the prey-predator relationship in the wild. The hammerhead shark continues to swim while still holding the smaller shark with its jaws.
The great hammerhead shark is a known apex predator that can grow up to 20 feet long and lives in tropical waters. Unfortunately, they are at risk of overfishing these elusive sharks have become endangered species.
Dr. Lauren de Vos from the ocean conservation organization Save Our Seas Foundation told the news outlet that sharks commonly engage in cannibalism, so it is not a shock to see the great hammerhead eating the smaller shark.
She pointed out that with over 500 shark species around the world, many prey on each other, especially the smaller sharks. Hammerhead sharks are just one of those cannibalistic shark species, as evident in the video going viral on the internet that has now received over 300,000 likes. But aside from sharks, they also eat cephalopods, rays, and smaller fishes.
ALSO READ: Megalodons Are Cannibals? Giant Sharks Ate Ancient Food, Possibly Including Predators
Shark Cannibalism
Shark cannibalism starts early in their lives even before they are born. According to the website How Stuff Works, ovoviviparous shark pups depend on yolk for nutrition but would start eating other eggs around it when an embryo has expended its own yolk sac.
Science Times previously reported that in ancient times when megalodons still existed, their 6-foot embryos also engaged in cannibalism while still inside their mother's womb when some of them hatched and began to devour their unhatched siblings.
In modern sharks, the most commonly known intrauterine cannibal is the tiger sand shark. Experts said that even though tiger sand sharks have two uteri and produce many eggs, they only give birth to up to two pups because they develop embryonic teeth and start feeding on their unborn siblings and unfertilized eggs.
That means that from the beginning, a shark's life has been the survival of the fittest, and only the strongest remain and are born alive. Due to this diet, tiger sand shark pups also tend to be bigger than other shark pups, measuring approximately 3 feet (1 meter) long.
This unique diet is known as adelphophagy, which literally means "eating one's own brother," while the behavior of embryonic sharks eating unfertilized eggs is called oophagy.
RELATED ARTICLE: Megalodon Babies Were 6-Feet-Long Due To In-Womb Cannibalism
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