Great White Sharks are Incredible
It should be no surprise after being around for as long as they have
Hiya!
So, I found myself thinking about great white sharks this week after I finished a book about elephants — I’ll let you guess what Curious Life will be about on Monday. It may seem like an odd leap to make after learning about elephants, and well, maybe it is. But no one said imagination is linear, right?
Besides, both elephants and great white sharks are nothing less than majestic in their respective domains, and there’s plenty we humans can learn from them. Great whites, especially, have more than earned their place as the ruler of the oceans. Humans are generally terrified of them, given their large torpedo body and many, many sharp teeth. But if we set our fears aside, we’d see they’re so much more than their fearsome reputation.
Super Cool Facts About Great White Shark
I won’t bore you with the typical facts, such as their teeth can grow to 6.35 cm long or that they’re the largest predatory fish on the planet. I want to tell you the super cool ones like their blood is extremely toxic. The amount of mercury and arsenic in a great white’s blood would kill most animals. For some reason, this fact painted great whites in a whole new light for me. I mean, that’s next-level badass.
So is this next bit of info. Did you know they predate the dinosaurs?! Let me say that again. They haven’t just been around since the dinosaurs, like crocodiles or cockroaches. They predate them. Dinosaurs lived about 230 to 240 million years ago, but great whites go back an astonishing 400 million years! No wonder they’re an evolutionary masterpiece.
Given how long they’ve been around, it stands to reason they’ve evolved some impressive intelligence — which they have. I mean, they’d have to if they want to dine on uber-smart dolphins. We’re only just discovering how smart great whites are, but one indicator is how curious they are.
They do what’s called “spyhopping,” which is when they poke their heads out of the water to see what’s happening on the surface. For example, they might notice a boat, then lift their heads from the water to see the entire boat—not just part that’s submerged. This may not seem neat, but they’re among the few marine animals to care or even notice the world above the surface.
There were only 9 unprovoked recorded fatalities for 2021, and there’s a reason the number is so low. The National Ocean Service says most sharks attack humans because they mistake us for something else, like a sea lion, but they don’t actually prefer to dine on humans. Most experts say sharks have a tendency to leave us alone and that we’d be “surprised to know how many times we may have been in the water close to one, and not known it.” Spooky.
Great White Sixth Sense
They’re almost hypnotizing to watch, curious, and more intelligent than we give them credit for, but it’s their senses that really set them apart. Not only do they have the same five senses that we have — sight, taste, touch, sound, and smell — but they have a sixth one, electroreception.
It means they can sense electrical fields, and they’re really good at it. Great whites, in particular, are masters of this ability within the animal kingdom and can sense just one-millionth of a volt of electricity in the water. This skill allows them to sense the electrical field of animals even when they’re buried in the sand. Great whites don’t just sense the electricity from their prey, though they can tell the power and direction of the currents and use it to navigate the electrical grid of the planet.
Of course, even without this sixth sense, it’s well known that sharks have an acute sense of smell, particularly when it comes to blood. Great whites can sniff out a single drop of blood within 25 gallons (100 liters) of water and smell small amounts up to 3 miles (5 kilometers) away.
When it comes to hearing, they have a double whammy. Though their ears are tiny and hard to see, great whites can hear for miles. They also have what’s called an ‘ear stone,’ which tells the shark whether it’s upside down, right side up, or its nose up or down. It’s kinda like how our inner ears help us keep balance. If our inner ears become damaged, we feel vertigo.
Their other senses are nothing to sneeze at either. A great white’s eyes are equipped for day and night vision, and they roll backward as a way to protect them from being poked. Plus, they can feel even the slightest vibrations and tell the direction and movement of prey up to at least 820 feet (250 meters) away.
Perspective Shift
Do you feel smarter? I sure do. What magnificent animals, and there’s still plenty of mystery surrounding them. Some believe they use body language to communicate, but the truth is, we don’t really know if that’s their only means or if they do it some other way we haven’t detected. After 400 million years of evolving, they’ve essentially become perfect. Who knows what amazing things they’re capable of.
The more I learn about them, the more they seem misunderstood. We’ve painted them as cold-blooded killers, and well.. okay, they are—but to me, it seems they’re also just curious introverts who like poking their heads out of the water to see the world. Exquisite as they are, I think I’ll still keep my distance.
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