What are the natural enemies of sharks?

As long as you mention the overlord of the marine world today, the first thing that comes to mind is the great white shark. Both popular science works and sci-fi movies describe the great white shark as an extremely horrible marine hunter.

It is true that the great white shark is indeed the top predator in the ocean. They can reach 6 meters in length, 8 meters in length and 3 tons in weight. Sharks are powerful creatures that have lived on the earth for 500 million years. Great white sharks are the best among sharks and stand at the top of the marine food chain.

Moreover, because of its scientific name "Man-eating Shark" and the rendering of sci-fi movies, Great White Shark has become a murderous demon in people's minds.

However, this does not mean that the great white shark has no rivals. On the contrary, in the ocean, great white sharks have natural enemies. And in the shadow of natural enemies, it is no exaggeration for us to describe great white sharks with fear. This animal is the killer whale.

Black whales are also called killer whales, which are called whales, but killer whales are actually dolphins, so they belong to dolphins. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being called a killer whale, because dolphins are cetaceans and are originally a kind of whales. The average body length of the black whale is 8 meters, the longest can reach 9.75 meters, and the highest weight can even reach 5.5 tons. Physically, killer whales have crushed the great white shark.

As the top marine predator among mammals, killer whales are far more powerful than great white sharks. Intellectually, killer whales can have an obvious advantage. They are good at tactics and can push huge great white sharks out of the water below. Physiologically speaking, great white sharks belong to cartilaginous fish, and it is difficult to compete with killer whales.

A team of marine scientists found in a study on 20 19 that as long as they feel the presence of killer whales, great white sharks will quickly flee from Na Pianhai, which can be said to be all at sea-I can't afford to hide from them!

They collected relevant data from two different sources, one is the migration of great white sharks marked and tracked by GPS system from 2006 to 20 13, and the other is the population statistics of killer whales, sharks and seals in Pointbluesociety, southeast of Faralon Island off the coast of San Francisco in the past 27 years. Both data confirm the above view.

SalvadorJorgensen, a marine ecologist at Monterey Bay Aquarium, described this phenomenon: "In front of killer whales, great white sharks will give up their favorite hunting grounds and will not come back for a year, even if the killer whales are just passing by."

In addition, the team also recorded four narrow encounters between great white sharks and killer whales in the Great Faralon National Marine Reserve in the United States, and observed and analyzed these four incidents.

It turns out that the great white shark seems to know that he is no match for the killer whale. Not surprisingly, once the killer whales appear, the great white sharks will wait a few minutes to escape, at least until the next season, and they will come back here. In fact, sometimes killer whales can "repel" the great white sharks in this sea area as long as they stay here for 10 minutes.

As a predator at the top of the food chain, it's a shame that great white sharks are caught in this situation. However, heroes don't suffer immediate losses. Perhaps it is this self-knowledge and life-saving quality that makes the great white shark still dominate today. If all the great white sharks had faced the killer whales bravely, I'm afraid they would have been extinct long ago.

Although great white sharks don't welcome killer whales, there is one animal that may be grateful to the latter, and that is the local elephant seal, because they are bullied and hunted by great white sharks all the year round.

Scot ScotAnderson, a marine biologist at Monterey Bay Aquarium, said, "On average, every quarter, we can record about 40 cases of elephant seals being preyed by great white sharks on the southeast Faralon Island. However, after the appearance of killer whales, we have not seen sharks and have not recorded any predation incidents. "

Of course, as carnivores, killer whales occasionally prey on elephant seals. However, they appear less frequently and usually feed on other fish. In addition, the occasional appearance of killer whales can win the safety of elephant seals for a long time. If I were a seal, killer whales would definitely be more popular.

It is also worth noting that these great white sharks are generally not too far away from the comfort zone where they once lived after being "driven" by killer whales. Sometimes, they also wander along the coastline, and then get close to different elephant seal communities to carry out their own hunting work.

In addition, sometimes, they will swim far and come to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There is a sea area called Great White Shark Cafe, which attracts a large number of great white sharks all the year round, but no one knows why it is so attractive to great white sharks.

It turns out that these great white sharks avoid killer whales for no reason. Biologists have observed killer whales preying on great white sharks in many waters around the world, including the waters near the Faralon Islands.

Interestingly, the bodies of great white sharks washed ashore all lost their livers. It seems that killer whales also know how delicious cod liver oil is, rich in oil and vitamins.

At present, there is still one thing that biologists have not figured out, and that is the way in which great white sharks are "driven away". Whether the great white shark instinctively sensed the existence of killer whales and fled, or whether the killer whales instinctively dispersed the great white sharks here after entering this sea area, remains to be further studied.

In short, even the great white shark running in front of other creatures has its natural enemies, and it will be scared when it is seen. No one in nature belongs to the forever strong. Knowing how to escape from the enemy seems to be a good way to save strength.