Читать книгу The World's Most Dangerous Animals - Kevin Baker Baker - Страница 8

Great white shark biting into a whale carcass. Image author: Fallows C, Gallagher AJ, Hammerschlag.

When it comes to sharks, the great white shark is usually the one that first springs into everyone’s mind. Images of them leaping from the water and snatching fish and seals out of the water are iconic, impressive and at the same time terrifying on a primordial level. Surprisingly, this fierce-looking predator is far more dangerous in our imaginations than in real life. Although one third of the 100 or so annual shark attacks are caused by great whites, most of these attacks are not fatal. In fact, the great white usually tends to simply bite and then release their victims out of sheer curiosity.

However, the great white is still one of the ocean’s top predators. Their bodies are streamlined to be fiercely fast swimmers, with up to a 20 foot long body shaped like a torpedo and a crescent-shaped tail. This sleek design helps them to swim up to speeds of 35 miles per hour. That is not even to mention their five rows of massive teeth. Each row has 46 teeth in it, making a total of 230 razor-sharp chompers that can be as long as up to three inches in length. Even though their bite force is not as strong as, say, a bull shark, they still have a very powerful bite, partly because of those teeth.

Their bite isn’t even the most impressive feature of this fearsome animal. All of their senses are extremely acute, especially their sense of smell. They can sniff out one drop of blood out of billions of drops of water from as far as three miles away. All sharks have a great senses of smell, but the great white’s is the sharpest.

All of the great white’s other senses are equally impressive. They even have a sixth sense: electro-reception. They can sense an electrical field due to a series of pores on their snout. This is how they navigate the ocean. Great whites create an electrical map of the seas by using the magnetic fields that crisscross the Earth.

Great white sharks have gotten a bad reputation due to their portrayal in movies and other popular media. As mentioned earlier, sharks are largely uninterested in eating people. They prefer getting their annual 11 tons of food from seals, sea lions, and even other sharks. In fact, the reason that people get attacked by sharks is because the sharks get confused. From below, a human swimming in the water can look like a seal or sea lion. When a shark realizes their mistake, they’ll just let go and move on. It is very rare for a person to be killed by a great white attack.