The last thing a group of researchers hectic tagging marine animals along the coast of north Queensland anticipated to see was a shark spit up a totally undamaged echidna– however that is precisely what took place. In what is thought to be a world-first, scientists from James Cook University, consisting of previous PhD trainee Dr Nicolas Lubitz, were tagging marine wildlife off the coast of Orpheus Island in between Townsville and Lucinda in May 2022. Till that point it was a quite “basic day” for the group of researchers, who had actually currently tagged numerous marine animals before the tiger shark they had actually wrangled threw up an entire, dead echidna, leaving the group “shocked”. “My theory is the echidna was swimming from one island to another [via a narrow channel]most likely searching for food or for mates, and simply got unfortunate and got snapped by a huge tiger shark,” Lubitz stated. “I would be really shocked if that has actually ever been tape-recorded before … I do not believe it’s too typical that they would eat echidnas.” As part of his PhD, Lubitz has actually been tracking the motion and behaviour of big sharks around the coast, trying to find connections in between food accessibility and environment modification. He thinks the shark might have absorbed the echidna if offered the possibility– spikes and all– however states it most likely tossed it up as a “tension reaction” to being wrangled and tagged. The truth the echidna was still undamaged without any indications of food digestion revealed it was swallowed “possibly an hour or more” previously, Lubitz stated. Tiger sharks can mature to 6 metres in length and are accountable for the 2nd biggest variety of taped attacks on people, after the fantastic white. They have dark, vertical stripes on their sides and back, and are scavengers by nature, feeding in shallow water. While tiger sharks are understood to feast on human rubbish, the echidna appears to be a. Dr Nicolas Lubitz with a shovelnose ray off Queensland. Photo: Nic Lubitz stated tiger sharks had actually serrated teeth, and whether they would chew their victim or swallow it entire depended upon its size. avoid previous newsletter promo after newsletter promo “A huge tiger shark would certainly simply swallow an echidna whole,” he stated. “They can break a turtles shell and simply cut off a piece of a turtle with their teeth.” The scientist, who works for the Biopixel Oceans Foundation, stated tiger sharks were an “opportunistic predator” that would “consume whatever they believe they can subdue or whatever thing they believe is healthy”. The sharks will go to temperate waters seasonally and are understood to regular waters in south western Western Australia, around the tropical north and down the east coast till the southern coast of New South Wales. In 2015 the group captured a various tiger shark, which likewise regurgitated its food– some blubber and a totally undamaged vertebrae, suggesting it had actually just recently fed upon a dugong calf. While tiger sharks were understood to hunt dugongs, they “truly do not toss up their food that frequently”, Lubitz stated. The echidna event revealed a connection in between terrestrial and marine food webs, he stated– and “we do not truly comprehend what the overlap” in between the 2 is.
Tiger shark throws up entire echidna, leaving Australian researchers ‘shocked’ – The Guardian
