Curious Shark Bites On Metal Cage To Check What It’s Made Of

“Oh, look, two seals in a bento box. Must be lunch time! These two-leggers really do like me. Hey, you up in the boat! You forgot to unlock my lunch box!”

And this is why the great white shark is smiling. This shark was brought up in the school of hard knocks, as is evidenced by the serious scars on its back. The only question is whether it is male or female. Female sharks of breeding age will bear scars in the shoulder area, because male sharks bite into the female in order to latch on during mating. On the other hand, appendages on its ventral side look like they may be claspers, which are a feature of male shark anatomy. I guess we won’t need to worry about its gender to be thrilled by this video.

One curious thing about this shark is it doesn’t test the metal bars with an exploratory bite. It opens its mouth, but then backs off just as its lips meet the metal bars. This suggests that the shark is conditioned to the presence of shark cages, and why bite into one when it already knows what they taste like? In some weird way, it could be that the shark is actually socializing with the divers. Now, we don’t have any delusions of tame acceptance, or that the trapped humans can look into its eyes and reason with it. There are just some creatures that we don’t bother playing Jedi mind tricks with, rattlesnakes are one, and man eating sharks are another.

Almost as interesting are the large fish swimming alongside the shark. We are looking at a pelagic zone, which means that fish live and swim in the deep water column, rather than in a shallow reef area. Unlike the reef, pelagic fish such as cobia, tuna, amberjack, dolphin (mahi mahi) and the like must perpetually swim or risk to be eaten. A pelagic fish at rest is a pelagic fish no more. We can be pretty sure each fish is well aware of the whereabouts of the other fish. The smaller fish have speed and maneuverability on their side. The shark, for its part, only needs one good opportunity to sneak up on a blubbery meal like a seal or sometimes dead whale to sustain itself for a month or more. This shark is probably not even interested in the other fish which, even though they are laden with protein, don’t have very much stored energy in the way of fat.

What kind of pain tolerance must these creatures have to endure such horrific bites? But these creatures are literally salting every wound. Ouch, that must have stung. Well, as they say, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. This big fella (or gal) looks strong. Don’t divers ever worry about the shark being able to stick its snout far enough between the wide spaces of a shark cage to bite them? The cage itself looks like it’s so narrow there’s not much room to back away. Imagine two sharks strategizing, one coming at you from the front, the other coming at you from behind!

Would you ever dare to have such close encounter with sharks and risk to be only inches away? There is always the slightest possibility that the beast might snitch you and have you for dinner. Fortunately, the ignorant shark in this video wasn’t too interested in the divers, it was only curious to check what material the cage is made of. Surprising!