The Sharks-Part Two 335 



saw a demonstration of the Tiger's cannibalism and rapacity. A large 

 female Tiger shark ate a smaller one struggling on a hook. Then, still 

 hungry, she immediately grabbed at a baited hook and was captured 

 herself. Tigers caught on this cruise had in their bellies turdes, squid, 

 crabs, sea birds, poisonous sea snakes, other sharks— and an unlucky 

 black cat. 



Tigers caught in the Gulf of Mexico off Texas had cormorants and 

 small migratory birds in their stomachs. A 14- footer landed at Durban, 

 South Africa, had inside it the head and forequarters of a crocodile, the 



Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvieri] 



Courtesy, The Sears Foundation for Marine Research from 

 Fishes of the Western North Atlantic by Henry B. Bigelow and William C. Schroeder, 1948 



hind leg of a sheep, three seagulls, two (unopened) two-pound cans of 

 green peas, and a cigarette tin. 



The omnivorous Tiger bites with a rolling motion of its powerful 

 jaws, so that its big, saw-edged teeth chop large prey into several pieces. 

 In this way, a twelve-foot Tiger was able to devour another shark 10 

 feet long. A Tiger seen in Australia with a portion of a Thresher shark's 

 tail protruding from its jaws was probably in the process of chopping 

 the Thresher into bite-size pieces. 



Many incredible items have been found in the stomachs of sharks of 

 undetermined species. Though the items have been reported, the species 

 of shark often has not been given. Knowing what identified Tiger sharks 

 have eaten, however, it seems likely that Tigers were often the gluttons 

 that gobbled down such morsels as these: dogs (often harness and all), 

 boots, sacks of coal, a bag of potatoes (some of which had sprouted), 

 beer bottles— and, in a single shark, three overcoats, a raincoat, and a 

 driver's license. Also, a pair of old pants, a pair of shoes, a cow's hoof, 

 the horns of a deer, twelve undigested lobsters, and a chicken coop with 

 a few feathers and bones left inside! 



The eating habits of certain sharks may astound ichthyologists, but 

 at least one shark— a Mackerel— managed to baffle oceanographers, too. 

 This one swallowed a drift bottle, released by the Fisheries Research 

 Board of Canada through its biological station at St. Andrews, New 



