Om nom nom…oh, you caught me in the middle of dinner!
While conducting a survey of fish in an area of the Great Barrier Reef, scientists stumbled upon this little tableau: a tasselled wobbegong, or “carpet shark,” in the midst of devouring a brown-banded bamboo shark. (Either that, or they’re just sharing a very intense kiss.) The carpet shark, which hides in the sand and springs out at its prey, has never been photographed eating another shark before, though scientists could tell from poking around in their stomach contents that their distant cousins were sometimes on the menu. Carpet sharks seem to be slow eaters, though: the team hung around for a full 30 minutes to see if it would suck in more of the bamboo shark, but to no avail.
Maybe it just has stage fright.
Images courtesy of Tom Mannering and the journal Coral Reefs
February 9th, 2012 at 2:26 pm
Savoring every bite…
February 9th, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Misleading title! I was expecting at least one other shark attempting to devour the carpet shark, as it ate the bamboo shark. One shark eating another shark is common, but one shark eating another shark while it eats a third shark? That’s awesome.
February 13th, 2012 at 5:07 pm
That’s a shark from Pirates of The Caribbean. It swims alongside The Flying Dutchman.
February 29th, 2012 at 7:32 am
Aye Captain :=)