Great white sharks are known to be notorious sea predators, and while they often feast on seals, a new study finds that they could also be feasting on other animals. As such, great white sharks could be eating other sharks.
Fewer Seals Being Eaten
According to Live Science, seals make up a huge part of great white sharks' diets, but as seen off the coast of South Africa, these Carcharodon carcharias could be feasting on something else, other sharks. This comes from their feeding on aerial prey and the regular cape fur seal.
The cape fur seal was described as the favorite prey of these great white sharks, but a recent study of a large seal population found barely touched, suggesting that these sharks could be feasting on something else.
Natural History Mag reports that a great white shark's diet includes sea birds, crabs, rays, squid, marine mammals, and other sharks.
National Geographic's SharkFest investigated Seal Island, located off the shore of Mossel Bay, and was known to be a home for many seals. As such, researchers suggested that out of the 4,000 seals on the island, if they were the main source of food for the sharks, 1,500 would have died during hunting season.
Live Science reports have the recent investigation found that only 150 seals from Seal Island were eaten by the estimated 40 to 60 sharks around the Mossel Bay coastline. Lacey Williams, an Oceans Research head field specialist, questioned what else was feeding the sharks besides seals.
Sharks Eat Sharks
The discovery was further outlined by Enrico Gennari, a shark scientist specializing in great white sharks. As such, tracking data was utilized to find patterns in the shark's movements during seal breeding season.
The reason for this was that fewer sharks frequent the waters during the breeding season, making them a harder source of food. During this time, the sharks were found to frequent locations with other smaller sharks.
They realized that three river mouths became the hunting location of these sharks, known breeding and feeding locations for smaller shark species. This prompted the research to gather visual evidence via video to figure out what was going on.
Other Sharks Hide from Great White Shark
Neil Hammerschlag, University of Miami shark research and conservation program director, described hunting mannerisms in other sharks. What they found was that around great white sharks, the catshark would show unique attributes.
Specifically, the catshark pretended to be dead by not pumping water from its gills, which was like holding their breath. This was to avoid being detected by the great white shark.
Hammerschlag said that he had never seen something like that and that it was evidence that they could've been the new prey for these great white sharks. As such, the director said the other sharks were scared of the great white as they could've been their food.
National Geographic reports that great white sharks have organs capable of sensing electromagnetic fields that animals often generate. As such, this helps with their hunting instincts.
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