Great
White
Shark
The Great White Shark or sometimes called the "Great White"
scientific name is Carcharodon carcharias. There are over
600 species of Sharks and rays with the GWS (Great White Shark)
belonging to a group of fast-swimming sharks called mackerel sharks
GWS are usually solitary animals but have been seen in pairs and
even occasionally in groups up to 7 or 8 
GWS are fish, but unlike most fish do
not have bones but rather a "cartilaginous skeleton"
2 other differences are their scales which are not smooth and
oily like most fish but very rough like glasspaper, and their
gills (gill slits) which are not covered like most fish but are
open
The GWS is found in temperate (mild) waters fairly close to the
shoreline They are found in most parts of the world including
North & South America, Africa, Japan, China, Russia, New Zealand,
and of course Australia
As you can see in the picture
the GSW has a "torpedo shaped" body with a pointed snout.
The belly of the shark is white (hence its name) but the top of
the shark is actually grey making it hard to spot from above.
"Average" size is around 3 1/2 to 5 meters long and
weighing about 1,200kg with the females being larger than the
males.
They can have up to 3,000 teeth located in rows. Each tooth is
saw toothed and triangular shaped. As a tooth is broken or lost
it is replaced by a tooth from the next row, so the GWS always
keeps a full mouth of teeth.
GWS
are predatory (eats other animals fish etc) Their food includes
other sharks, fish, sea lions, seals and other marine mammals,
turtles, small whales. GWS are also scavengers eating animals
already dead (Carrion) Despite having teeth GWS do not chew their
food but swallow whole pieces ripped off their victim by their
teeth
The GWS swiftly attacks its prey from below taking a bite and
letting the victim bleed to death. To locate its prey the GWS
uses its very excellent sense of smell (especially of blood) and
an ability to sense "electrical charges" given off by
muscle movements.
They sense these by their ampullae of Lorenzi, located in the
pores around their snout. These are small tubes that pick up the
information, and then send it to the brain.
SWIMMING
These sharks use their tails to push them through the water and
their fins to keep themselves balanced. They must constantly swim
or else they will sink. The reason they would sink is, unlike
bony fish (osteichthes), they do not have a swim bladder which
holds air. The swim bladder in the bony fish can be controlled
by valves. When the want to get more air in they open a certain
valve, so they can rise. If they want to go lower in the water,
they open another valve to let the air out. The air lets them
float. The sharks do not have these, which is why they must keep
swimming or they sink.
GWS give birth to live young which are called pups. The pups fully
develop inside their mother and once born they are immediately
independent from their mother.
LINKS
GWS
pics and info from Douglas J Long
Great
"School level" page on the GWS from Enchanted Learning
Software
Great pics of Marine
life including GWS and other sharks
Excellent
Video of Great White Shark and Sealions by stephen hurford
A GREAT "Travbuddy" site on Sharks
with lots of information links on the bottom of the page
Ants
(Green Tree Ant).... Bandicoot (Long
Nosed).... Bilby.... Bogong
Moth.... Bottlenose Dolphin.... Bridled
Nailtail Wallaby.... Brolga.... Cassowary.... Crocodile
(Salt Water).... Cuscus.. Cuttlefish.. Dingo..... Dugong.... Eastern
Snake Necked Turtle.... Echidna.... Emu.... Flying
Fox (Grey-Headed).... Frilled Necked Lizard.... Furseal
(Australian).... Galah.... Goanna.... Great
White Shark.... Kingfishers & Kookaburras.... Koala.... Kowari.... Leadbeater's
Possum.... Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo.... Lyrebird.... Magpie.... Mallee
Fowl.... Numbat.... Owls.... Oystercatcher Parrot.... Pelican
(Australian).... Penguin (Little
or Fairy).... Phascogale.... Platypus.... Pygmy
Possum.... Quokka.... Quoll
(Spotted Tailed).... Rainbow Lorikeet.... Red
Kangaroo.... Sawfish.... Sea
Eagle (White Bellied).... Seadragons.... Seastars
& Crown of Thorns.... Southern Right
Whale.... Sugar Glider.... Sulphur
Crested Cockatoo.... Tasmanian Devil.. Tasmanian
Pademelon.... Thorny Devil.... Thylacine
(Tasmanian Tiger).... Tree Frog (Blue
Mountains).... Western Swamp Tortoise.... Wallaroo.... Wombats
x 3.... Yabby....
To return to UNIQUE AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS Page
To return to SASSY'S Home Page
fFREE
Brochures
fFREE
Brochures