The Whale Shark's Awesome Diet And Anatomy

The Whale Shark's Awesome Diet And Anatomy

by Linda Patterson

A whale shark is a gentle sea giant which has a constantly hungry stomach and a mouthful of teeth. Despite that the description may sound true yet it really has nothing to do with the truth. In actual fact, with regards to diet, the whale sharks are far different compared to the shark species.

Actually, these friendly giants, the whale sharks are known as filter-feeders. What thay mainly feed on are red crab larvae, krill, plankton, small nektonic vertebrates, squids, macro-algae and small fishes. The whale sharks can gulp in water, filter for food and expulse the water using its gills owing to its unique oral anatomy.

Know that the whale sharks do not have big sharp teeth as what other shark species have. The fact is that, the size of their teeth is relatively smaller considering the fact that their teeth provide no real use regarding feeding. This means that, whale sharks usually do not munch their food. What these whale sharks have being filter-feeders is a unique raking mechanism attached within their gills which serves as a filter of their food from the water they gulp in. Their characteristic as filter-feeders makes their diet odd, interesting yet logical.

Filter-feeding

In lieu of preying on fishes, a whale shark sucks in mouthfuls of water abundant with macro-algae, tiny fishes and plankton. And then, it closes its mouth to catch the water inside of the body, which happens to be funneled through the gill flaps, where water is removed. Almost all of the food particles are stuck against the dermal denticles lining the whale shark's pharynx and also gill plates. They use their fine sieve-like contraptions to sifter plankton. The diameter of these filters are only 2-3 millimeters, prevent anything besides water and also smaller food particles from getting out of.

Just about any organic material which is stuck between the gill filters is swallowed in soon after. For a human point of view, the theory of filter-feeding would seem really quite troublesome. You can definitely find it difficult to fully grasp making use of your mouth like a sponge filter and also swallowing the dirt that amasses in the filter. Even if whale sharks are extremely well experienced in regards to filter-feeding, yet the difficulty regarding it is not really lost for them. More often than not, these whale sharks are reported coughing because they are unable to swallow all the food particles trapped in their gill filters. At some point, the food particles there collect and additionally clog up the filters, making it tough to eat with no need of coughing and, quite possibly, choking.

These creatures are very active feeders. Not like various other species of sharks, or fishes for example, whale sharks seldom cease eating. Considering the fact that filter-feeding also doesn't call for them to aquire for food, whale sharks can just gulp in water regardless of whether they're resting in stationary position.

Many Other Filter-feeder Sharks

Amongst all other shark species, the megamouth shark as well as the basking shark are the filter-feeders. The basking shark doesn't filter-feed the way whale sharks do. In lieu of gulping along with expelling water by using their gills, basking sharks just "basks," as a result forcing the water to flow by using their gills. The food particles are then simply amassed plus swallowed.

The fact is, whale sharks are totally different from what you primary assumed them to be. Their teeth has no use simply because they are filter-feeders and do not have big sharp teeth.



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