Sharks. Saltwater crocodile against the great white shark Who has more powerful teeth of a crocodile or shark

In disputes about who is stronger - a shark or a crocodile, no consensus. Some believe that the inhabitant of the oceans has an advantage. Others argue that the amphibian monster fights better, so it wins fights more often.

A shark's tactic in a fight with a crocodile is to drag him under water so that the enemy suffocates

The big white is the largest among relatives. It is armed with sharp teeth up to 5 cm long, strong and very dangerous. The length of a giant body can reach 7 m, and weight - 3 tons. Despite these characteristics, this predator is not the most vicious. Bull sharks have the palm in this matter.

How strong is a crocodile

combed crocodile It is considered the largest and most aggressive reptile on Earth of all those living today. The size of adults reaches 6–7 m in length, and such a monster weighs about 1 ton. They love shark meat, so the inhabitants of coastal villages use it as bait for crocodiles.

Who will win the fight

Shark benefits include:

• high speed and ability to maneuver;
• massive and strong body;
• the ability to stay under water for a long time.

The crocodile, in addition to a set of sharp teeth, boasts armored skin, which even a shark can hardly bite through. If the duel drags on, the reptile runs the risk of suffocating and will be forced to unclench its jaws. However, the amphibian monster easily defeats the smaller relatives of the white predator.

Expert Alistair Lyon, for a long time who worked with crocodiles, claims that when a tiger shark and a combed giant meet, the latter will win. However, he believes that the chances of a real conflict between these creatures is minimal, since territorial aggression, which could cause it, is unlikely.

American zoologist James Nifong from Kansas studied some of the facts of collisions between sharks and crocodiles, and came to the conclusion that marine predators I rarely attack reptiles. But crocodiles are more aggressive and periodically injure their rivals, depriving them of their fins.

Stories and videos periodically appear on the Internet about how a crocodile was defeated by a shark. This is possible, but when an adult reptile enters the battle, she has every chance of winning.

Who is stronger: shark or crocodile?

Here the victory depends, as it were, on the shark itself. And victory depends on the crocodile itself.

If the shark is turned over, it will fall asleep. it scientific fact. The truth is little known, except for killer whales.

Everything that IGOR PROKHOROV 5.3K described is true, I have nothing to add to his words.

And you do a search on the topic Shark vs. Crocodile. For example, good information on this topic http://www.akulizm.ru/akula-protiv/krokodil-protiv-akuly.html

The shark has a very weak point, which few people know about: being turned over on its back, it very quickly falls into a stupor, as if falling asleep. Killer whales often use this. Swimming along the bottom and seeing the silhouette of a shark above, they grab it from below and immediately turn it over on its back. And after a few minutes, the shark falls asleep, after which the killer whale devours it. Similarly, a person can handle it (I saw a video in the pool of a person grabbing an average shark, turning it on its back and it quickly fell asleep).

If a crocodile grabs a shark and manages to turn it upside down, it can celebrate victory. A few years ago I found on the Internet interesting story one local resident from the shores of the Amazon. He witnessed a fight between two sharks and two (or three?) crocodiles. Sharks swam into the Amazon from the sea, probably looking for new places of prey and food. And local crocodiles came out to meet them. After a short fight, the sharks retreated.

Who are you more afraid of? Personally, I am a shark.

Do not have a more powerful body. The crocodile has a definite advantage in the armor on the back. But skilled people catch crocodiles with their bare hands. And try to catch a big, predatory shark with your hands?

I don’t know how for me it’s impossible to compare them at all, each is strong in its own way and each has its own habits, strength, abilities, etc. it's the same as comparing an elephant and a giraffe, that one has a weight and that one has a length! As for me, both animals are strong!

In any family there are very strong individuals. Such individuals are found both in the family of crocodiles and in the family of sharks. And besides, both predators are very strong. Therefore, in my opinion, it is more correct to divide the victory fifty-fifty.

Both are very strong, but it seems to me that the crocodile, if it grabs it, will break all the bones, because when it grabs, it sharply lights its prey in the water, and went to the bottom, although sharks are much larger, which may not be enough strength for this, and the crocodile has very strong scales, which are very difficult to pierce or bite through, if you only get to the stomach, although sharks themselves are very strong and dexterous, but it seems to me that stronger crocodile I'm not an ace, I just think so)))

Here, after all, the answer lies in who bites whom first. If the crocodile grabs and starts spinning around its axis, then the shark simply will not survive this damage. And if the shark, in turn, bites off the head of the crocodile, then the headless crocodile will also have trouble in the future.

If you think about it, it seems to me that the shark will be stronger, she and large sizes than a crocodile, and her mouth is bigger 🙂 Or maybe a crocodile, since a shark is good only in water, and a crocodile is good both in water and on land.

Let's try to reproduce the model of the battle between two predatory titans - a shark and a crocodile. Both of these creatures have long instilled horror and fear in man. And what does the relationship between them look like? Who has a better chance of winning in the event of a bloody duel?

It is clear that any simulation, especially with the help of imagination, does not quite objectively allow us to assess the capabilities of the sides of the fight. And even more so - it is impossible to draw unambiguous conclusions, considering an imaginary battle between fierce and strong opponents, when the outcome of the battle can be decided by chance. Therefore, let's not forget that the duel is virtual, and it would not be entirely fair to argue based on its outcome that one of the opponents is undoubtedly stronger.
The basis of logical constructions will be our knowledge of these large predatory animals.

From the side of the sharks, the great white shark will perform in the duel, since it is the largest of the aggressive predators, a recognized leader in terms of weapon power and danger. It must be assumed that readers of the site already know enough about the great white shark. This is a large fish, reaching a length of more than 7 m and weighing over 3 tons. The officially registered records for the size of the great white shark are somewhat more modest, but it must be assumed that not all especially large specimens fall on the scales of researchers and scientists.
The main weapon of this predator is sharp teeth, the length of which reaches 5 cm.

Who among the representatives of the crocodile family will be able to resist such an effective killing machine?

There is only one contender for this role - who feels great in sea ​​water and reaches large sizes. For those who have not heard of this monster, brief information:

Salted crocodile is the most major representative family of crocodiles in the class of reptiles (reptiles). It is believed that individual individuals can reach 7 m in length and weigh more than a ton.
This toothy monster lives in the Malay Archipelago, from southeastern regions Asia to northern Australia. It can be found both on coastal land and at sea, since the combed crocodile is able to live in sea water and even travel between islands. Thanks to the ability to navigate, according to experts, these predators were able to settle from the Hindustan and Indochina peninsulas to Australia.
The combed crocodiles got their name for the presence of two large crests on their heads, stretching from the eyes to the middle of the head.
The teeth and mouth of a crocodile are capable of instilling fear in any living creature. It is believed that the force with which the crocodile squeezes its jaws can reach 2 tons! In the regions where this reptile monster lives, dies from its teeth more people than due to shark attacks.
The mobility of this predator is admirable - at the time of the attack, it is able to develop lightning attacks at a speed of more than 40 km / h! Residents of places where large crocodiles live claim that the toothy monster is able to snatch a person out of the boat so quickly that comrades nearby do not always have time to notice it.
As you can see, our heroine's opponent is quite worthy - strong, fast, with powerful jaws.

The remains of small sharks were often found in the stomachs of crocodiles, and the remains of crocodiles were found in the digestive tract of large sharks.

Let's try to estimate the chances of winning in an imaginary duel between a great white shark and an adult saltwater crocodile, especially since the meetings in the sea of ​​these two predators are quite real.
The main advantages of a shark are high speed and maneuverability, a more massive body and the ability to stay underwater indefinitely, since it is a fish.

Crocodiles can't long time stay without a breath of air - their circulatory system uses atmospheric oxygen to oxidize the blood. And their main advantage over the shark is the armored skin of the back, which is difficult to bite through even for a shark. But if the battle drags on, and, of course, it cannot be fleeting in the battle of giants, even a crocodile that has captured a shark with its teeth will be forced to open its jaws and float to the surface. He will not succeed in quickly killing a shark with his teeth - the prey is too large, and, moreover, extremely tenacious, so he will soon need a saving breath of air. Floating to the surface, the reptile will expose its vulnerable belly to the shark's teeth, which will decide the outcome of the fight. Of course, with the same size, the crocodile will lose the fight.

Such fights between predators of equal size sometimes take place. There are also eyewitness accounts of such fights. In most cases, they went exactly according to this scenario.

The conclusion is unequivocal - the great white shark will not leave the saltwater crocodile a chance to survive. However, the same can be said about other large species sharks - tiger, mako. If they are not inferior to the size of a reptile, then advantages such as the ability to breathe underwater, combined with powerful teeth and maneuverability, decide the outcome of a bloody battle.

Of course, in a real battle between titans, success in the battle depends on many circumstances - the surprise of the attack, a successful attack or bite, etc. But in our virtual simulation, we adhered to level playing field for opponents - as for boxers before the gong signal

Saltwater crocodiles live in seas that great white sharks do not like. These predators prefer cool waters. temperate latitudes, where marine pinnipeds are found in abundance. Therefore, duels between crocodiles and small tiger sharks, as well as with representatives of the families of gray and reef sharks, are more likely. Such opponents are significantly inferior in strength to a large crocodile, therefore they often become victims of adult reptiles.

We bring to your attention a video of the popular science channel Discovery, in which scientists and experts simulated a fight between two water titans - a combed crocodile and a great white shark. After watching it, you will be convinced that many moments of this film do not contradict the analyzes, reflections and conclusions given above. By the way, the author of the article about the fight between a crocodile and a shark did not watch this video before the publication of his article.

For a crocodile in this case, the temperature of the pool can be a deadly problem. For most species it should be between 20-38°C. The white shark, as a likely victim, he will ignore, as he chooses the animal with which he can somehow cope. And he lives in fresh water(although there are species that can tolerate salt).

White shark, on the contrary, lives in the salt water of the ocean and coastal waters. And the temperature of its range is much lower - 12-24 °C. In general, the tolerable temperature spectrum is wider, from cold seas to the tropics, but we are still talking about the usual.

Bloody encounters between sharks and crocodiles are not uncommon. Proof of this is the image of the battle of a crocodile and a shark on the coat of arms of the city of Surabaya. The main antagonists are a combed crocodile, which can swim far into the sea, and a shark of comparable size, due to its aggressiveness.

But the crocodile has more powerful jaws, grip strength and teeth have roots. With equal sizes, in addition, the crocodile will have more weight due to the presence of the skeleton.

Anaconda is more difficult. A lot depends on chance. The crocodile will be lucky to grab it with its jaws - perhaps with its favorite twisting it will have time to tear out a piece of flesh, at least enough to weaken and prevent the snake's body from wrapping around it. And if the anaconda has time to "wrap" the reptile, then that's it, it will break the bones and push it inside, there are enough such videos.

I'm afraid that in the end, one of the three remaining will jump onto the edge of the pool and get a dessert in the form of a pool worker who drove the three of them into this death trap. And then they will shoot the next ... tenth Hollywood horror film.

Everyone will calmly wait for more familiar food to appear. A crocodile is something that is smaller than its size, an anaconda is something that can swallow (again, something that is smaller in size). The great white shark will wait for blood markers (blood) to appear in the water. Most likely, both the anaconda and the crocodile will not challenge the right to prey from the white shark if it is interested in it. I think every predator will wait for his own food until he faints, and not fight like spiders in a jar.

"A crocodile is that which is smaller in size."

In fact, crocodiles calmly attack animals not just larger, but much larger than themselves.

He (Kermit) also shot a 12-foot (3.6 m) crocodile. The ugly, formidable beast kept in its stomach sticks, stones, cheetah claws, impala hooves, large eland bones and fragments of the shell of one of the largest river turtles; apparently, he took a fee from among his fellow inhabitants of the river, or from among the creatures who came to quench their thirst. He didn't care if the animals were pastured or harvested for fresh flesh, he just hunted them. (Roosevelt writing from Guaso Nyiro, pp. 286-287.)

The conventional wisdom that crocodiles do not prey on waterbucks was unambiguously refuted by our observations in National Park Kruger, and, as shown in Table 6, waterbucks are one of the most common warm-blooded prey species in the diet of crocodiles. important part The diet of crocodiles is made up of impalas, as well as kudu and bushbucks. We happened to observe how an adult male giraffe, intending to cross the Olifants River, suddenly stumbled, fell and was dragged into the water by a large crocodile. An adult male buffalo was seized at a water hole in Nyavutsi by a fourteen-foot crocodile and drowned after a terrible struggle. Over the years, only two cases of crocodile predation on hippo cubs have been recorded, however, there have been several cases of hyenas, hyena dogs and even lions being killed by crocodiles.
Table 6. List of sightings of animals killed by crocodiles in the Kruger National Park between 1936-1946 and 1954-1966.
1936-1946: 80 impalas, 1 zebra, 21 waterbucks, 7 kudu, 2 buffaloes, 1 warthog, 2 wading goats, 2 duikers, 1 nyala, 1 stenbuck, 3 bushbucks, 2 bush pigs, 1 baboon, 1 wild dog. Total: 125.
1954-1966: 163 impalas, 7 zebras, 4 wildebeests, 41 waterbucks, 22 kudu, 2 buffaloes, 2 giraffes, 3 warthogs, 3 wading goats, 3 nyalas, 1 stenbuck, 21 bushbucks, 1 jumping antelope, 2 hippos ( cubs), 2 hyenas, 1 lion, 1 baboon, 1 vervet, 1 porcupine. Total: 280.

"Once I saw a crocodile attack and really overcome the resistance of a bull buffalo. I watched a reptile lying on a sandy shore with a huge open mouth, his feathered friends are probably the only ones he has. However, the crocodile refused to brush his teeth when the herd of buffaloes came down to drink. Instantly and silently the crocodile slipped into the water, and I wondered in wonder if he would attack such a large herd. Six cows were drinking at the very edge, and the bull went deeper and buried his head in the water, before I saw another sign of the reptile's presence.Then a whirlpool of water swept at lightning speed, and the bull tossed its head with the crocodile in its muzzle.His position on the low bank slope no doubt helped the Croc, and inch by inch he dragged the bull closer to suddenly, with great effort, the buffalo broke free, but before he could move a distance, the "croc" grabbed his paw. Down his head dropped, and the horns raised the "half" of the crocod silt from the water and put it on the sand. But the effort cost the buffalo its position. He knelt down, and at the present moment the crocodile grabbed his nose again. Then I shot at the reptile, the crocodile loosened its grip and soon disappeared under the water. I was hoping I could get it. But in the future, I could not get the carcass. Before the bull could get up, I shot him too to inspect the wounds. Looking at the nose, I found that the crocodile's huge maw had crushed the bones into mush, the flesh, like that of the paw, was torn and dangling away. It seemed incredible that such a deadly strength and ferocity of a crocodile could have developed from a creature that, perhaps a hundred and fifty years ago, emerged from an egg; and which began its life as a lizard about six inches long!"

Giraffe killed by crocodiles:

Wild African buffalo struggled to make their last breath before being dragged underwater by a Nile crocodile in Kazinga Channe, Uganda, Africa. The relationship between predator and prey. The African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is one of the African Big Five. They are often seen in large herds and joint protection of relatives (strength in numbers).

This is the first evidence that came to mind. Well, there are many such cases. And this is precisely with successful attacks, but there are also unsuccessful ones. Crocodiles are highly specialized hunters of large prey.

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First of all - depending on which crocodile to take. The combed or Nile crocodile will bite both the white shark and the anaconda. Especially the last one. Indeed, in fact, no 10-meter snakes exist and did not exist, with the exception of a number of extinct species today. The largest green anacondas reach about 5.5-6 meters in length and weigh up to about 100 kg, while the largest modern combed crocodiles can weigh up to about 1750 kg with a length of up to 7 meters, and white sharks - more than 2.3 tons with a length of not less than 6.1 meters.
And the so-called "videos with the victories of anacondas over crocodiles", which were mentioned here, actually demonstrate the eating of "harmless" crocodile or Yakar caimans by snakes. And those are usually smaller than the anacondas themselves in size. But the point here is not even in "more or less", but in the fact that the caiman is far from being a crocodile of the same size. In fact, young crocodiles calmly eat caimans of their size when kept together in captivity. Whether the anaconda will be able to cope with the crocodile of the same size, or will be bitten by it in half - this is another question. Whatever it was, but even if a 100 kg anaconda can compete on equal terms with an approximately 3-meter 100 kg crocodile, then it simply has no chance against a larger one. Against a shark, I think she will have more chances, since the body of a shark is devoid of bones and can easily be flattened by squeezing the anaconda rings. But not against a 2-ton shark.)

As for the white shark, although it is larger than the saltwater crocodile, the sharks themselves are frankly bad fighters. They live off the opportunistic eating of carrion, fish, cephalopods, and only sometimes young or weakened by old age / diseases marine mammals. Don't fall for the common and misleading discussion that "white sharks specialize in feeding on seals". This is a myth from documentaries with nothing else to show but seasonal baby shark feeding sea ​​lions. Sharks have extremely primitive physiology: in particular, the kidneys are practically disabled and waste products accumulate in the blood until they themselves flow through the rectal glands and gills. And this is strong (and by no means in better side) affects endurance, strength of muscle contractions, coordination of movements and nervous system in general, which in sharks are already not very well developed. The cartilaginous skeleton, even with proper calcination, cannot attach such powerful muscles to itself as even thin bones bony fish, not to mention the powerful skeletons of such developed higher vertebrates as crocodiles. The same applies to the jaws: the cartilaginous jaws of sharks are also very unstable to stress and deform easily. The jaws of young white sharks do not allow them to cope even with seal pups without risk, without literally risking their head. In large sharks, during ontogenesis, this deficiency is partly compensated by an increase in the calcium content in the cartilage of the jaws. But, I emphasize - only partly. Being ordinary modified scales, shark teeth do not have roots and easily fall out of the gums even from small loads. And them a large number of may not always compensate. I say right away sharks don't bite through shells sea ​​turtles - this is also a myth based on the study of the contents of the stomachs of sharks and the finds of the carcasses of unfortunate turtles with traces of shark teeth. But only the turtle's shell softened by water becomes very fragile, especially if it is some kind of leatherback turtle or Australian green turtle. And pieces of shells of sea turtles in the stomachs of sharks, in addition to eating carrion that has kneaded in the water, can also fall as a result of swallowing turtles whole: in this way, by the way, snakes and monitor lizards eat turtles that do not have sufficient bite force to open the shells. No one has ever seen a shark swim up and gnaw through the shell of a fresh turtle, and I guarantee you that. But there are more than enough videos where large tiger sharks bite the tails, heads and flippers of turtles, but cannot do anything with the shell. And although protective function in the osteoderms of large crocodiles, it is frankly secondary; it will be very difficult for a shark to bite through the thick skin of a crocodile. Even the belly of a crocodile, whose vulnerability is invented and imposed by the pseudo-documentary program "animal battles", is in fact reinforced not only with quite a decent skin (comparable in strength to buffalo and going to elite leather products), but also with a large layer of muscles with abdominal ribs. Finally, sharks are frankly cowardly: the white shark is the only large predator, from which people regularly fight off with their bare hands. Moreover, there are cases when people survived after attacks even by 5.5-6 meter sharks. Again, since white sharks are by no means specialists in eating fat seals, you should not think that people are not to their liking. The shark will eat any meat available to it, it is an opportunistic predator: bivalve mollusks, herring, small squid, sea turtles, rats, the remains of unidentified terrestrial animals were found in the stomachs of white sharks, in one case they even found a 1.2-1.5 meter Australian narrow-nosed crocodile. These animals are by no means less "appetizing" than humans, but white sharks eat them with pleasure. In the end, the same polar bear is a much bigger specialist in fatty foods. But this does not prevent him from considering people as food ... And even if you do not dwell on the low fatality of shark attacks on people, then the same seals, as a rule, also survive after shark bites. It is easier to find photographs of shark-injured seals recovering from damage on the beach than to find cases of successful white shark predation on adult pinnipeds. White sharks are not hunters of large prey, and they do not suppress the resistance of even relatively small prey.
Therefore, I do not think that the saltwater crocodile will have any problems killing a primitive and frankly shy white shark. After all, many successful attacks by crocodiles on a variety of sharks have been recorded. Salted crocodiles are extremely aggressive - males defending food or territory often rush even to helicopters (seemingly very "terrible" because of the noise and size of unfamiliar objects) rangers. But most importantly, unlike sharks, crocodiles regularly fight with each other and are able to suppress the resistance of even a large and well-armed victim (after all, successful attacks of crocodiles even on big cats are known). They handle large animals with ease, and some individuals in Australia's tea swamps even specialize in taking adult Asian water buffaloes. The white shark and the saltwater crocodile are, let's say, animals from two completely different "leagues", despite the weight superiority of the shark.

So I propose to complicate the question: what happens if you put a plesiosuchus, a plesiotylosaurus, a liopleurodon, a large combed crocodile and a full-grown male walrus in one pool?

Of course, in this case, he will not be a priority fighter. But of the marine mammals of this size, only the walrus can do something:

"One can hardly speak of any serious food competition between walrus ami and polar bears, even taking into account the fact that walrus and from time to time also feed on carrion - for example, the corpses of whales. In the hungry months of the polar winter, whale carcasses are the main food for all the inhabitants of the Arctic, from gulls and ravens to arctic foxes, wolves and bears. Robert Brown notes that stomachs walrus her, killed near skinned whale carcasses, are invariably stuffed with whale meat. Walrus and sometimes they even kill small ringed seals - as we already know, the main prey polar bear. It is possible that they do not disdain and sea ​​hares. Pedersen says seals are afraid walrus to her and avoid places of their haul-outs. Freichen says that the herds walrus She usually drives the seals out of the bays where they spend the summer months.
We have no reason not to believe the stories about how the Eskimos are fishing north of Baffin Land. walrus her on the edge of the ice floes; they dip a piece of seal oil into the water in the hope that walrus, attracted by the bait, will grab it and try to drag it under water; but because walrus cannot eat a piece under water, he must pull it out onto the ice, and here it becomes the prey of the hunter. They say that, noticing black spots - seals lying on the ice, walrus and break through the ice from below to get to them. According to Pedersen, the walrus deliberately hollowed out the ice floe, trying to split it under the feet of a man. Eskimos from the Hudson Strait say that in the fall, when they track walruses at the holes, the walruses, noticing the place where the hunter is standing, dive and then begin to break the ice under him.
Frederick Jackson, who lived for about four years in the southeast of Franz Josef Land at the end of the last century, as well as one of Haig-Thomas's companions, were attacked by a walrus right on an ice floe: the walrus leaned out of the water and tried to hit with tusks. K. Kollevey, a member of the German expedition that landed on the northwestern coast of Greenland in 1869, wrote: “We were hardly making our way along the path among the treacherous ice fields and suddenly saw a walrus: it broke through the ice from below very close to us and frightened us with its unexpected We ran as fast as we could, but the walrus did not leave us - with great speed it swam after us under water, breaking the ice under our feet. and the flapping of the monster's flippers accompanied us all the way, until at last we got out onto the old ice, where the pursuer left us alone.
If suddenly a group of people from the ship frightens a seal and a walrus lying on an ice floe not far from the hole, then the walrus, which moves faster on land than the seal, will be the first to reach the saving vent. But instead of going around the seal peacefully, the walrus purposely hits him on the back with his tusks; this unexpected manifestation of aggressiveness is certainly a consequence of fear. Usually walruses hunt seals in the water. Pedersen twice saw a walrus chase and then kill a young ringed seal. And the Eskimos from the shores of Cumberland Bay told Gantzsh that more than once they watched walruses catch seals in the water, grabbing them with flippers and then stabbing them with tusks. The Eskimos of Pond Inlet tell the same story.
In the pools of the New York Aquarium, they constantly measure the speed at which walruses of different age groups swim. The maximum throwing speed does not exceed 7-9 kilometers per hour, and the normal cruising speed is only three and a half kilometers. In the wild, walruses make 10-13 kilometers per hour, and the slowest of the seals - at least 15-20 kilometers. Therefore, it is not surprising that walruses hunt only for young seals. However, assuming that walruses swim much faster in the sea than in a pool (and we know that they overtake even fast-moving belugas), one cannot but admit that seals in the water are much more mobile than walruses. Therefore, when hunting seals, the walrus, like a bear, swims on its back and dives under the seal at the moment when the seal sticks its head out of the water to breathe. Having clasped him with flippers, the walrus strikes with tusks, cutting open the chest of the seal. Then, holding his prey with flippers in the same way as a walrus holds a puppy, the male walrus swims with it to the nearest ice floe, throws the carcass onto the ice and climbs out himself. There he rips open the seal with tusks and greedily swallows large pieces of skin with fat. It is possible that he uses his whiskers for this operation. Observations show that in captivity a walrus, tearing off pieces of meat from a seal carcass, helps itself with vibrissae. Especially walruses love to feast on soft seal fat: a small distance between the tusks sitting on both sides of its mouth does not allow it to swallow large pieces of meat. Therefore, it is not surprising that most of the seal carcass is untouched. However, somehow Pedersen found a whole flipper in the stomach of a walrus.
In those months when there is especially a lot of polar cod, walruses sometimes catch this fish too, crashing into schools and eating it in large quantities.
Predatory walruses are still an anomalous and rather rare phenomenon. Fei believes that in the Bering and Chukchi Seas, there is hardly one male predator per thousand walruses. But still they exist and are much more common than is commonly thought. In the stomachs of walruses, young narwhals were found more than once, as well as the skin and fat of a whale. There is even the only evidence of how two walruses attacked a whale from two sides, which defended itself with its tail. Apparently, whales avoid entering waters where there are walruses. Famous polar explorer early XIX century, William Scoresby Jr. observed many times in the Norwegian and Greenland seas how walruses devour narwhals. Eskimos from the Simpson Strait told William Schwatka that walruses often attack porpoises. The Englishman Robert Gray, skipper of a whaling ship that entered the waters of the Norwegian Sea in 1890, wrote: “Standing on the bridge, I noticed some object in the dark water, over which birds were circling. Having lowered the boat into the water, we saw that it was a narwhal , completely covered with wounds, his belly was almost eaten away. The culprit of the crime - a huge walrus, was sleeping peacefully nearby on a fragment of an ice floe. "
Twelve years before this message, Gray's father, whose ship was in the Greenland Sea 275 miles from the coast of Spitsbergen, writes in the ship's log: "Moving north through ice fields and drifting ice, this morning I saw ahead of some object that at first I took it for the shaft of a hand harpoon. The water around it was oily, and several birds were sitting nearby. At first I thought it was a dead whale, but then I saw that it was the tusk of a narwhal. When we got closer, I noticed something in the water near it brown and wondered for a while what it could be, but soon I realized that it was a walrus, tightly clinging to a narwhal.
When we got quite close, I sent two boats and ordered to throw a hand harpoon at the narwhal and shoot from the harpoon gun at the walrus. The blow of the first harpooner fell at the very nose of the walrus. The walrus became furious and released the narwhal, which immediately began to sink. The walrus obviously did not want to part with the prey, and, diving, he pulled the narwhal to the surface. Wrapping his flippers around him, he sank his teeth into him again.
At this time, the second boat approached, the harpooner fired from the cannon directly into the neck of the walrus, and he finally released the narwhal. The walrus dragged the boat along the wind for quite some time until a shot from a gun in the back of the head killed him.
After examining the carcasses, we found that the narwhal was missing the insides, and most of the belly was eaten or torn apart by the walrus, which selectively chose the pieces, apparently having spent a lot of time on the meal. He ate the fat from the skin as cleanly as if it had been scraped off with a knife. Narwhal was killed recently, in deadly fight the walrus wounded him with fangs from nose to tail. The walrus itself was intact. It had a three-inch-thick layer of fat on it, and its stomach was stuffed with sealskin and chunks of freshly eaten narwhal meat. According to our rough estimate, there were at least fifteen gallons of blubber in his stomach.
The narwhal was about fourteen feet long, not counting the tusk, and nine feet in girth. The tusk was five feet long.
The walrus was eleven feet long and nine feet ten inches in girth.
How, one wonders, did the walrus manage to keep such a powerful beast as the narwhal? Narwhal in his native element feels much freer than a walrus, and can leave with a harpoon entrenched in him, unwinding a hundred-foot whale line.
This is the only explanation I can think of: the walrus caught the narwhal while he was sleeping, dived under him and, thrusting his tusks into his belly, wrapped his flippers around him. In this position we found them, with the only difference being that the walrus was now on top."

American alligators and sharks are known for their extreme eating habits. They are opportunistic predators that will not fail to plunge their greedy jaws into any potential prey they see. Including each other, says zoologist James Nifong from the University of Kansas (USA).

A Mississippi alligator chews on a nurse shark on Sanibel Island, Florida (USA). Photo: USFWS.

For the past ten years, Niphon has been studying Mississippi alligators in their freshwater homelands in the southeastern United States and has repeatedly seen various sharks swim there. He wondered if the crocodiles interact with their sea guests, if the greens manage to teach uninvited fish a lesson with punishing teeth. Digging in scientific literature and after consulting with experts, he learned of a number of confirmed cases of alligators devouring lemon sharks, small-headed hammerheads, baleen nurse sharks and stingrays. Estrogillary cartilaginous fish may be an important but underestimated food resource for alligators, Nifun said.

Meanwhile, such evidence is rare, and there are several reasons for this. First, alligators with sharks are not easy to track and observe in coastal habitats. Secondly, alligators devour relatively small sharks, which can not be identified from afar, mistaking them for some bony fish. Thirdly, the acidity in the stomachs of alligators is so high that any food, with the exception of hair or shells, dissolves very quickly there, especially cartilage, so it is not possible to identify the remains of sharks and rays in crocodile nausea or directly in the stomachs at autopsy.

Cases of meetings of crocodiles with elasmobranchs are also known from other parts of the world. AT South Africa, for example, at nile crocodile remains of two unidentified shark species were found in the stomach. In Australia, combed crocodiles have been observed preying on blunt sharks, and a recent study documented crocodile bite marks in half of the surveyed sawfish rays in the west of the continent. Crocodiles love the meat of cartilaginous fish - the natives even use it in traps as bait for combed crocodiles.

Nifun was able to find some interesting newspaper clippings of the 19th century, which tell about the battles of sharks with Mississippi alligators. So, in October 1877, hundreds of alligators, attracted by the abundance of fish formed after high tide in a bay near Jupiter, Florida, were attacked by hundreds of huge sharks, who also smelled potential food. According to an eyewitness, alligators with sharks “rose on the waves and gnawed like dogs”, after which the surf turned bloody, and then for several days the coast was littered for 80 miles with the corpses of headless and tailless alligators and sharks bitten in two - a real feast for vultures and buzzards! Perhaps the journalists The Fishing Gazette, exaggerated and embellished in places, but alligators and sharks do sometimes gather in large flocks in places where prey accumulates, so large-scale interspecific skirmishes cannot be ruled out. And in those days, their flocks were much more numerous than they are today, which increased the likelihood of such battles, Nifung adds.

Another story from Florida appeared in The Palatka Daily News in May 1884: a certain three-meter shark tracked down a two-meter alligator and attacked him, biting into his side and biting in half, after which "half of the defeated enemy disappeared into the deep throat of a predator." Yes, sharks are also not born with a bast and can kick crocodiles! Moreover, this enmity has been going on for millions of years, at least since the late Cretaceous: Fossil bones of crocodiles with bite marks from ancient sharks have been found in northeastern Mali. However, predatory shark aggression against sinister reptilians is relatively rare these days, and such evidence often looks implausible, but the opposite cannot be said, Nifnuf notes. So far, the crocodiles seem to be winning.

Text: Viktor Kovylin. According to materials: