According to recent discoveries, large white sharks together, like at a feast, eat dead whales, which are an important food resource for usually single predators. Large white sharks up to 5 meters in length gather near the coast of South Africa and devour whale carcasses, according to observations of researchers obtained during expeditions 2000-2010. Giant sharks rarely appear near the shore, but may be nearby, waiting to pounce on dead or dying whales, researchers say.
“These huge sharks come pretty quickly – within less than 24 hours after receiving the signal about the dead whale,” says study co-author Neil Hammerschlag, a marine ecologist at the University of Miami. “We assume these animals are near the shoreline, waiting to take advantage of these kinds of situations.”
Joint feasts collect about 40 large white sharks during the day. There was no struggle, even if one shark accidentally bit another, says Hammershleg.
Nevertheless, a certain hierarchy existed. “The biggest sharks have found the largest accumulation of fat, while sharks have eaten less in areas with a low fat content, mainly by eating subcutaneous fat that has exfoliated from the carcass,” says a leading author of research on sharks Chris Fallows (Chris Fallows) .
