Tiger Sand Shark Behavior John Purdy 2721577 [e-mail]
I chose to further observe the sand tiger shark because of it's seemingly aggressive appearance. The shark has a very streamlined body that looks makes it look like it is a very skilled and adapt hunter. The mouth of a sand tiger shark is towards the front of the face, but slightly lower on the head. It suggests that the shark primarily hunts through very aggressive and offensive moves. Though in the exhibit I only noticed isolated behavior, from what I read online, the sand tiger shark hunts in groups, using tactics similar to a lot of other aquatic species that trap their prey. Another interesting observation I made while watching the sand tiger shark is that the shark appears to be naturally buoyant in the water. The shark does not use perpetual motion to stay afloat, and avoids sudden vertical movement. However, from what I read, the shark obtains this buoyancy by inhaling air from the surface and holding it in their lungs. Rather tricky indeed. I suppose in an environment like Underwater World this method of obtaining buoyancy is rather practical, but in a real life environment this would severely limit the depths to which a sand tiger shark could inhabit and hunt. That's why I feel in nature this shark is a shark that only inhabits very shallow coastal waters. I'm not sure why, but the sand tiger shark seems to be constantly glaring its teeth. It may be an intimidation thing, or it may be an adaptation to life in Underwater World. While the teeth are scragged and nothing close to perfect, they do look very, very, dangerous. Perhaps by showing them in a controlled environment shark the is able to assert dominance over other species that it co-exists with while refraining from physical confrontation. Or, maybe the builders of Underwater World chose to include the sand tiger shark because they knew that it looked scary
and they wanted a lot of scary fish in their aquarium. The last noteworthy thing I noticed about the sand tiger shark is that the shark has incredible fins and an impressive tail. The tail seems to be lopsided. There is more tail above the body of the shark than bellow. This may have something to do with how the shark achieves buoyancy. If the shark is holding in air to achieve buoyancy it may be naturally hard to swim downwards, or the shark may experience a naturally tendency to float towards the surface when idle. Maybe having a lopsided tail provided the shark with a slightly downward motion when it moves. The two dorsal fins on the shark are almost equal in size. I'm not sure what this means in terms of the sharks behavior. Perh...