A tiger shark vomited up an sudden Australian icon, proper in entrance of a stunned biologist.
Tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) aren’t precisely fussy eaters. They have been identified to take bites out of seabirds, different sharks, and people, in addition to tires, license plates, and even a small TV.
However one in all these marine predators could not fairly abdomen a spiky short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus).
The incident was recorded off the coast of Orpheus Island in north Queensland, the place a crew of researchers caught the shark to tag it in 2022 as a part of a three-year mission.
Marine biologist Nicolas Lubitz from James Prepare dinner College in Australia captured the startling second the 3-meter (9.4-foot) lengthy shark spat out its barbed breakfast.
“It was a fully intact echidna with all its spines and its legs,” Lubitz says.
“I managed to only get one picture, but you can see the outline of the echidna in the water.”
Lubitz suspects this spiky spew was the results of a mix of stress and indigestion.
“It’s very rare that [tiger sharks] throw up their food but sometimes when they get stressed they can,” Lubitz says.
“In this case, I think the echidna must have just felt a bit funny in its throat.”
Echidnas have been identified to swim every now and then, maybe to keep cool, pushing their little snout up from the water like a snorkel. However most sightings have been in creeks, lakes, rivers, and swimming swimming pools – hardly ever within the ocean.
So it is fairly stunning that they could typically paddle out far sufficient from shore to turn out to be shark bait.
There have been sightings of Queensland echidnas swimming between the mainland and close by islands, but it surely’s nonetheless fairly uncommon.
Lubitz says the unfortunate echidna will need to have been swimming in shallows off the island, or even perhaps swimming between close by islands, looking for meals or a mate, when it was snapped up by the shark.
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As a result of the lifeless echidna’s carcass was nonetheless totally intact when it was regurgitated, Lubitz suspects it was a latest kill the shark hadn’t begun to digest earlier than taking the analysis crew’s bait.
“It’s known that Tiger sharks will eat anything. They’re just a scavenger. I’ve seen videos of them eating a rock for no reason,” Lubitz says.
Whereas the echidna actually takes first prize for prickliest prey, the crew noticed one other weird shark vom on a separate event throughout their time at sea. This time, a Tiger shark coughed up half a dugong.
“It threw up a big piece of blubber and then a full vertebral column. I think it was a dugong calf it had a go at,” Lubitz says.
Each sharks appeared to get better post-regurgitation, and have been fitted with acoustic trackers earlier than being despatched on their method.
It is hoped the trackers will present scientists with information on the sharks’ actions for a decade.
Thus far 812 animals have been tagged as a part of the Queensland Array mission, together with critically endangered jap shovelnose rays (Apychotrema rostrata), also called guitarfish.
