Size varies by species. He shark The largest is the whale shark, which measures up to 39 feet long.
The great white shark can be up to 20 feet long. Bull sharks can reach up to 11.5 meters. The tiger shark can measure from 11 to 14 feet.
The smallest is the Dwarf tollo (Etmopterus perryi), about 7 1/2 or 8 inches (19-20 cm) long for females, and 6 to 7 inches (16-17.5 cm) long for adult males.
White Shark Body How tall is the White Shark?
It is elongated, fusiform, with great strength and robustness. Females are usually larger than males and they can reach lengths of up to 7 meters. Physical traits can be described as follows:
White shark (Carcharodon carcharias)
- Head: It has a cone shape, very thick and short.
- Mouth: In arched and rounded shape with large size. In an attack>
The Great White Shark
In the United States, the largest white shark was found by Marcos Brid and a research team specializing in large predators. It had a length of 12.7 meters and a weight of 3.5 tons. It was found near Miami Beach, in the Atlantic Ocean in 1993.
White Shark Reproduction
They are ovoviviparous, that is, eggs. According to certain studies, they prefer temperate waters to carry out reproduction. The eggs remain in the uterus, until they come out. Once abroad after childbirth, they move away from the mother so as not to be eaten.
White Shark Feeding
They are specialists in hunting large marine mammals, for example, The sea lion, seals, tuna, turtles. The hours dedicated to this activity are in the morning or in the afternoon,
taking advantage of the weak solar rays.
In its youth the White Shark feeds on fish, small sharks, dolphins, penguins, otters.
White Shark Behavior
His behavior is very characteristic when he has to hunt, it is his senses that distinguishes him from others. All their movements adapt to the circumstances they face when it comes to catching agile and fast animals, such as sea lions.
Its perception is due to the fusion of the capac> What allows this animal to detect the currents or different vibrations, control the direction and perceive the sounds caused by the agonizing fish.
The behavior of the white shark is also due to its sensitive smell that is capable of detecting blood, even when it is long distances. Your eyesight allows you to be prepared to act, even if the conditions are poor lighting. It is a relentless hunter that is characterized by its speed, has the ability to reach great speeds such as 50 km / h.
White Shark Attacks
The great white shark is the king of sharks for being an aquatic carnivore. His attack begins when he uses his extraordinary senses to detect the prey and to know if it is an edible prey. To complete your attack visualize your food, even try it. This type of shark is known to be the king of this species for attacking quickly and lethally.
According to studies that have been conducted on this animal, in marine attacks that have been recorded worldwide, only one third are attributed to the white shark.
Many of the attacks that are caused by this great white shark confirm that it does not devour the human, but rather releases it. Although, it is not very comforting to know that we can be bit> the human being is not part of the favorite food of the white shark.
On the internet there are many videos about the attacks of this type of shark, these are usually a bit exaggerated. It is very true that some have developed a predatory instinct and it is inevitable that they are not dangerous, but it cannot be said that the behavior of the white shark is hostile.
In conclusion, the white shark will not necessarily jump out of the water to capture bathers or surfers. His attack techniques are commonly used to capture animals.
White Shark Overview
What you don't know about the White Shark:
- They are solitary animals, just born they start a life without any company.
- They are endotherms, that is, they can maintain constant body temperature above the habitat where you are.
- They need 10 to 15 years to reach sexual maturity, depending on gender.
- The mating has not been witnessed, but there are data of pregnant females.
- Gestation lasts 11 months.
- It is the only survivor of the Carcharodon species
- They are cannibals, since they are believed to eat each other inside the mother's womb.
- Its main natural enemy is the killer whale.
- Studies carried out assume that they consider human prey unpleasant or without nutritional value.
- The attacks on humans that have been made are believed to have been due to shark confusion.
The White Shark has a low population, also reproduces very little, so It is in danger of extinction, like other fish species such as Rainbow Fish or the Clownfish. Therefore, Take care of them!
# 3 The great white shark
Its scientific name is Carcharodon carcharias and it is a natural inhabitant of all the warm waters of the planet. It can measure between 4.6 and 6 meters long, and weigh more than 2,300 kilograms. its anatomy It makes him an excellent swimmer, since he can travel at more than 25 kilometers per hour.
His body is white on the belly and gray on the spine, which allows him to camouflage himself perfectly in the marine ecosystem. Your mouth can have up to 300 triangular shaped dental pieces arranged in several rows. During the attack you can lose some teeth but then regenerate them again.
The great white shark can detect a drop of blood in 100 liters of water, and even detect small amounts of blood more than 5 miles away, that is, about 8 kilometers. When it is small it feeds on fish and rays, and as an adult it feeds on sea mammals like seals, whales and lions and sea elephants. Although it is not scavenger, it can also feed on the remains of mammals dead.
The coasts of California They offer an ideal habitat for white sharks due to their fauna, depth and water temperature. California has also been the scene of numerous shark attacks on humans, due to the high sport and tourist activity of its beaches.
In any case, attacks on humans are not as common as it is believed since, on average, there are only 2 to 3 deaths per year due to white sharks, a fairly insignificant figure when compared, for example, with deaths by dog bite.
The great white shark is in danger of extinction and since 1992 is on the list of protected species by the State of California.
# 2 Pilgrim shark
His scientific name is Cetorhinus maximus and is the second largest shark in the world. They mainly inhabit the seas and oceans near the United Kingdom. They can measure up to 12 meters long and weigh up to three and a half tons.
Despite its impressive size, the basking shark is completely harmless, since it feeds primarily on plankton and other small organisms such as copepods, barnacles, decapod larvae and fish eggs.
Pilgrim sharks have a long snout that ends in a rounded tip, their mouth is very wide and with more than 100 teeth per row. On the sides of his head he has long gill slits.
In the summer and fall seasons it is when these sharks are closer to the coast for mating. They are very docile and quite tolerant creatures with those who practice water sports in their territory.
Many sharks of this species have been injured because of the jet sky and other types of boats, also found in Danger of extinction and the International Union for Conservation of Nature declared them as a protected species.
As if that were not enough, its reproduction rate is very low because it reaches sexual maturity at some time between 12 and 20 years, and it is estimated that the gestation period is more than one year.
His scientific name is Rhincodon typus and it is the largest shark in the world, measuring between 6 and 10 meters and weighing up to 18.5 tons. While it looks more like a whale than a shark, it is a kind of cold and cartilaginous blood like the rest of the sharks.
It has a flattened head and on the sides of its snout it has two nostrils, although it breathes through the gills. The color gray with white spots. It has two small dorsal fins located almost at the back of its body.
The whale shark is not a predator, its form of feeding is called "by cross flow filtration", that is, they swim with their mouths open and catch small fish and plankton.
These sharks prefer warm waters, it can be found mostly in the Indian Ocean, especially on the northwest coast of Australia, where they will have their young during the summer season, since they find here abundance of plankton.
It is a solitary species, usually they are not swimming in groups. They inhabit deep waters, usually below 100 meters deep. Despite this, they are relatively friendly to humans and diving with them has become a tourist attraction.
Like the basking shark, the whale shark It is low and slow reproduction, and is in danger of extinction and was declared protected species.
What do you think of these three species of sharks? Have you had any close experience with any of these sharks?
Size of sharks according to type
As we said, The size of the sharks depends on the type. Next, we will tell you the different shark sizes of the most common types:
- White shark size: The size of an adult white shark is between 4 to 7 meters.
- Tiger shark size: the tiger shark usually reaches 2 or 3 meters.
- Blue shark size: This shark is usually around 2 and a half meters, although specimens of up to 4 meters have been seen.
- Gray shark size: It is one of the smallest sharks on this list, with 1 meter or one and a half meters long.
- Whale shark size: is about the biggest shark that exists. It usually measures about 12 meters.
- Pilgrim shark size: This is the second largest type of shark that exists. It reaches from 6 to 8 meters.
