Facts about Tiger Shark – Tiger sharks are huge they can reach the weight of 600 kilograms each. They are the fourth largest shark after whale sharks, basking sharks and great whites. What makes them even more scary is that they eat garbage. Those are only some of the facts about tiger shark.
On top of that, they give birth to a massive amount of litters. Moreover, a tiger shark was involved in murder mystery. Don’t you think tiger sharks are interesting? We have provided 11 interesting facts about tiger shark that are going to blow your mind.
Read too The Habitat of Great White Shark.
Facts about Tiger Shark
1. Tiger shark doesn’t always have stripes
The name tiger refers to the stripes that tiger sharks possess. However, not all tiger sharks own these stripes, at least when they get older.
The dark stripes are there when tiger sharks were born. The pups have roundish grey spots that eventually fuse into stripes. Once they get older, the stripes fade again. Tiger sharks usually have stripes when they reach 1.5 meters in length.
2. Closer to great white sharks rather than sand tiger sharks
The appearance of tiger sharks are closely similar to the sand tiger sharks. However, if we look at the latter, they are not that close. Due to the similarity of look, people often mistaken these two sharks altogether.
3. Tiger sharks eat everything, including human rubbish
Tiger sharks eat everything that they can find. This means they would eat venomous sea snakes, albatrosses, as well other sharks. On top of that, man-made objects are also consumed by them. Tiger shark is literally a swimming garbage disposal.
The rubbish thrown by human can become their food as well, from paint cans, rubber tires, leather jackets, license plates, and so much more you can think of. This facts about tiger shark is why when they are featured in Jaws, they would get things pulled out of their stomach.
4. Tiger sharks like to be in warm water
Wherever tiger sharks can be found, you can be sure that the water temperature is warm. Tiger sharks prefer tropical to warm temperature that is around 22 degrees Celcius.
That facts about tiger shark is the optimal temperature preferred by tiger sharks. This is why they live near Hawaii and Australia.
5. Tiger sharks living in Atlantic migrate south on winter
There are also tiger sharks living in Atlantic. To keep their temperature optimal, they would migrate south to the Caribbean and West Indies. On summer season, tiger sharks would head north and approach mid-Atlantic, on the warmest part.
While temperature is one of the reasons why tiger sharks migrate, there are more to explore. The travel habits of tiger sharks are still studied up until now. No one is exactly sure why they move from one place to another.
6. Equipped with excellent teeth for hunting
Tigers have notch tips on their teeth that are pointing sideways. Their teeth would also look symmetrical on the right and left. These facts about tiger shark function to grasp onto the preys and bite them thick.
This means that any prey that they meet will easily lose to them. Once the jaws are opened, the preys are for sure going to struggle and become their next feast.
7. Tiger sharks hunt sea turtles regularly
Sea turtles are not the number one source of foods for shark. However, tiger sharks are well known to hunt sea turtles regularly. This is especially when the sea turtles are visiting the Great Barrier Reef where the tiger sharks are around as well.
Sea turtles are quite hard for tiger shark to bite on. This facts about tiger shark is why they prefer turtles that are not unhealthy, sick or dying. When the turtles are alive, they would turn the body so that tiger sharks won’t be able to bite onto them.
8. Tiger sharks benefit sea grass around them
Sea grass is important to the ecosystem of the water. Sea grass is where small animals live in, as well as the food source for big herbivores. Due to heat wave, the amount of sea grass is decreasing in Shark Bay, Australia.
Scientists have noticed that when tiger sharks are around, the sea grass grows at a higher rate. One of the reasons could be because sea grass is eaten by sea turtles and dugong. With tiger sharks around, they are scared to come to the sea grass.
9. Tiger sharks are found to share foods with great whites and crocodiles
Although this phenomenon is rare, this has been known back in 2015. Great white sharks and saltwater crocodiles were filmed to be with tiger sharks, sharing foods. These fish were filmed to eat a sperm whale.
There was once to be found that they were eating Byrd’s whale carcass together. This means that this is possible to happen, yet evidence is still very low.
10. A shark was once used for mystery murder
Dated back to 1935, this happened in the Coogee Aquarium, Sydney. They just got a 4 meter long tiger shark for the aquarium. Only seven days later, the tiger shark gets sick and vomited rat, bird, brown goo, and interestingly, a human arm.
The human arm was tied by a rope. There is a forearm tattoo of two boxers. At the same time, a boxer named James Smith was missing and the tattoo was suspected to belong to him. Although, after it was checked, the arm wasn’t bitten by the shark. The arm was removed by knife, then got eaten by the shark afterwards.
11. Tiger sharks may give birth to up to 80 pups at once
The pregnancy length of tiger sharks is quite long. They are pregnant for 14 to 16 months. On average, tiger sharks are able to give birth to 30 pups at once.
However, the number can be as low as 10 pups or even 80 pups! The weight of the newborns are around 3 to 6 kilograms each.
Conclusion
Out of all the facts above, tiger sharks are indeed scary. This somehow makes them similar to tiger in the jungle. Both tiger sharks and actual tigers are excellent hunters.
On top of that, they are top predators in the underwater world. Not only that they consume fish, they would also prey on other sharks as well. Even whales are one of their targets! So, how are those facts about tiger shark doing to you?
