‘’Predator of the deep’’
INTRODUCTION
Great White Shark, also known as White Shark, White pointer, Blue Pointer, Man-eater, Manila shark. But the shark has also lots of nicknames: top carnivore, a killing machine, the last free predator of man.
It is the most frightening animal on earth. That’s why I have chosen to do my essay about the Great White Shark.
RESIDENCE OF THE GREAT WHITE SHARK
Great White Sharks live in almost all coastal and offshore waters. Offshore waters are waters along the coast and waters that are away from the coast but if you are on the coast you can see them. These waters have a average temperature between 12 and 24°C.
The densest (most crowed) known population of the shark is found around Dyer Island in South Africa where around 31 different Great White Sharks have been located.
In a research about sharks, a Great White Shark swam from South Africa to the northwestern coast of Australia and back to the same location in South Africa, a journey of 20,000 kilometres in 9 months. Before this research researchers (people who study something) thought that sharks stay for their whole life in one place.
BODY
The Great White Shark is a streamlined (smooth lined) swimmer and a wild predator with 3,000 teeth. The shark is a feared animal, it has a torpedo-shaped body (his body looks like a torpedo), a pointed snout, 3 main fins: the biggest main fin called dorsal fin (on its back) and 2 other fins called pectoral fins (on its sides). When the shark is near the surface, the dorsal fin and part of the tail are visible above the water.
COLOUR
Only the underbelly (the lower belly) of the great white shark is white. It’s top and the other parts are grey to blue grey. Because of it’s colour the shark can hunt easily. The Great White Shark usually attacks from below, so than it’s harder to see the shark because the water has almost the same colour, and his prey can’t see him, that’s why his colour helps the shark hunt.
SIZE
Great White Sharks are between 3.7 to 4.9 m long. The biggest great white shark was 7 m long, weighing about 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg). Females are larger than males. Shark pups can be over 1.5 m long at birth.
FEEDING
Young Great White Sharks eat fish, rays and other sharks. Adults (grown up sharks) eat larger prey, including pinnipeds (sea lions and seals), small toothed whales (like belugas), otters and sea turtles. They also eat carrion (dead animals that they have found floating dead in the water).
Great White Sharks do not chew their food. Their teeth rip their prey into pieces. So the pieces can be swallowed in one time.
A big meal can be enough food for a Great White Shark for over 2 months.
TEETH
The teeth of a Great White Shark are triangular, serrated, very sharp and 7.5 cm long. As teeth are lost, broken, or run down, they are replaced by new teeth that rotate into their place.
SENSES
A Great White Shark has many senses but two of them are special:
1. One is the talent to detect electrical charges. They can detect electrical charges as small as 0.005 microvolts. The prey can be detected by the electrical field, the electric charges can come from a beating heart or the gill of a fish. Because the shark uses this sense, the fish that are hiding for the shark are also not save.
2. The great white's nostrils (the two openings at the end of the nose) can smell one drop of blood in 100 liters of water. Shark nostrils are only used for smell and not for breathing, like our nostrils. For breathing the shark uses the gills. Gills are the organ through which a fish breathes.
CLASSIFICATION
Every living thing has a classification. So below you find the classification of a Great White Shark:
Kingdom Animalia (animals)
Phylum (main division of animals and plants) Chordata
SubPhylum Vertebrata (vertebrates)
Class Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish)
Subclass Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays)
Order Lamniformes (A kind of Sharks)
Family Lamnidae
Genus Carcharodon
Species C. carcharias
FACTS ABOUT THE GREAT WHITE SHARK(S)
1. Most Great White Shark attacks are not deadly.
2. Of 100 shark attacks, only 10 to 15 people die because of deadly attacks by Great White Sharks.
3. Great White Sharks are usually lonely, but regularly they travel in pairs.
4. In the fall, some females migrate to warmer waters.
5. Great White Sharks move through the water by their powerful tails, the average of the speed of the sharks is 3,2 kilometre per hour but if the Great White Shark wants, it can swim 24 kilometre per hour.
6. When Great White Sharks reproduce they bring 2 to 14 pups alive of 1,5 metre long.
7. No one knows the life period of the Great White Shark, some people thinks the sharks can be about 100 years old, but this has not been proven.
8. The maximum size of a full grown Great White Shark is still unknown.
9. Great White Sharks are decreasing in numbers (there are getting lesser of them) because of the hunting by man. But they are a protected type along the coasts of California, USA, Australia and South Africa.
10. In 1758 a western researcher gave the name ‘’Great White Shark’’ to the shark after studying a tooth of the shark. That researcher was Carl Linnaeus.
INTRODUCTION
Great White Shark, also known as White Shark, White pointer, Blue Pointer, Man-eater, Manila shark. But the shark has also lots of nicknames: top carnivore, a killing machine, the last free predator of man.
It is the most frightening animal on earth. That’s why I have chosen to do my essay about the Great White Shark.
RESIDENCE OF THE GREAT WHITE SHARK
Great White Sharks live in almost all coastal and offshore waters. Offshore waters are waters along the coast and waters that are away from the coast but if you are on the coast you can see them. These waters have a average temperature between 12 and 24°C.
The densest (most crowed) known population of the shark is found around Dyer Island in South Africa where around 31 different Great White Sharks have been located.
BODY
The Great White Shark is a streamlined (smooth lined) swimmer and a wild predator with 3,000 teeth. The shark is a feared animal, it has a torpedo-shaped body (his body looks like a torpedo), a pointed snout, 3 main fins: the biggest main fin called dorsal fin (on its back) and 2 other fins called pectoral fins (on its sides). When the shark is near the surface, the dorsal fin and part of the tail are visible above the water.
COLOUR
Only the underbelly (the lower belly) of the great white shark is white. It’s top and the other parts are grey to blue grey. Because of it’s colour the shark can hunt easily. The Great White Shark usually attacks from below, so than it’s harder to see the shark because the water has almost the same colour, and his prey can’t see him, that’s why his colour helps the shark hunt.
SIZE
Great White Sharks are between 3.7 to 4.9 m long. The biggest great white shark was 7 m long, weighing about 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg). Females are larger than males. Shark pups can be over 1.5 m long at birth.
FEEDING
Young Great White Sharks eat fish, rays and other sharks. Adults (grown up sharks) eat larger prey, including pinnipeds (sea lions and seals), small toothed whales (like belugas), otters and sea turtles. They also eat carrion (dead animals that they have found floating dead in the water).
Great White Sharks do not chew their food. Their teeth rip their prey into pieces. So the pieces can be swallowed in one time.
A big meal can be enough food for a Great White Shark for over 2 months.
TEETH
The teeth of a Great White Shark are triangular, serrated, very sharp and 7.5 cm long. As teeth are lost, broken, or run down, they are replaced by new teeth that rotate into their place.
SENSES
A Great White Shark has many senses but two of them are special:
1. One is the talent to detect electrical charges. They can detect electrical charges as small as 0.005 microvolts. The prey can be detected by the electrical field, the electric charges can come from a beating heart or the gill of a fish. Because the shark uses this sense, the fish that are hiding for the shark are also not save.
2. The great white's nostrils (the two openings at the end of the nose) can smell one drop of blood in 100 liters of water. Shark nostrils are only used for smell and not for breathing, like our nostrils. For breathing the shark uses the gills. Gills are the organ through which a fish breathes.
CLASSIFICATION
Every living thing has a classification. So below you find the classification of a Great White Shark:
Kingdom Animalia (animals)
Phylum (main division of animals and plants) Chordata
SubPhylum Vertebrata (vertebrates)
Class Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish)
Subclass Elasmobranchii (sharks and rays)
Order Lamniformes (A kind of Sharks)
Family Lamnidae
Genus Carcharodon
Species C. carcharias
1. Most Great White Shark attacks are not deadly.
2. Of 100 shark attacks, only 10 to 15 people die because of deadly attacks by Great White Sharks.
3. Great White Sharks are usually lonely, but regularly they travel in pairs.
4. In the fall, some females migrate to warmer waters.
5. Great White Sharks move through the water by their powerful tails, the average of the speed of the sharks is 3,2 kilometre per hour but if the Great White Shark wants, it can swim 24 kilometre per hour.
6. When Great White Sharks reproduce they bring 2 to 14 pups alive of 1,5 metre long.
7. No one knows the life period of the Great White Shark, some people thinks the sharks can be about 100 years old, but this has not been proven.
8. The maximum size of a full grown Great White Shark is still unknown.
9. Great White Sharks are decreasing in numbers (there are getting lesser of them) because of the hunting by man. But they are a protected type along the coasts of California, USA, Australia and South Africa.
10. In 1758 a western researcher gave the name ‘’Great White Shark’’ to the shark after studying a tooth of the shark. That researcher was Carl Linnaeus.
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