How does a great white shark hunt, and where does it live?
A great white can launch itself out of the water to catch a seal, and one tagged off South Africa swam to Australia and back, about 20,000 km, in under nine months.
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Which one is it?
A great white shark hunts mainly seals and other marine mammals by , and it lives in tropical, temperate and colder seas around the world, along coasts and in the . White sharks prey on marine mammals such as seals and dolphins, as well as squid and fish, including other sharks. Off California they typically attack seals from below, seizing them near the surface and dragging them under. Off South Africa, attacks on Cape fur seals usually involve the shark leaping, or breaching, out of the water.
A starts deep. The shark begins about 20 metres below the surface and rises fast, tilting its body upright, and it can clear up to about 3 metres of air. If the seal escapes and the chase drags on, the shark is less likely to succeed.
Step 1: Start deep
About 20 metres below the surface.
Step 2: Rise fast
Body tilted upright, heading for the seal.
Step 3: Break the surface
Clears up to about 3 metres of air.
It is built for the work: about 300 triangular, serrated teeth that are continuously replaced, and a body that is partially warm-blooded, which keeps it active in colder waters. To breathe it must keep swimming, so that water flows through its gills.
It also travels. One white shark tagged off South Africa swam to Australia's northwestern coast and back, a trip of about 20,000 kilometres in under nine months. White sharks are mostly solitary but may gather at feeding sites. Even this top hunter is sometimes hunted by orcas.
And people? White sharks normally do not prey on humans. Most bites are put down to curiosity or possibly mistaken identity, but the mistaken-identity idea is disputed: other researchers see these as exploratory bites.
Try it
How fast must a breach be to rise 3 metres?
- Lands at
- 0.872 m
- Highest point
- 1.24 m
Challenge · Raise the speed until the top of the flight reaches about 3 metres, the most that breaching sharks are recorded to clear.
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Recap
A great white ambushes from below, sometimes leaping out of the water, and it is a hunter of seals rather than of people.
💡 A trick to remember it · Think of a torpedo fired upward from the dark: the ambush comes from below, and sometimes the whole shark clears the surface.
Surprising fact · A tagged white shark swam from South Africa to Australia and back, about 20,000 km, in under nine months.
Sources (1)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (18 claims) cites at least one of these.