Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)

Earth Explorers

• Turtle watching with a twist

  Visiting an underwater turtle cleaning station, Ellen Husain encounters an unexpected and curious predator. The tiger shark.

• Swimming with sharks

  Diving with lemon sharks at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, producer James Brickell came across an underwater 'bus' coming towards him out of the shadows.

About the Tiger shark

The tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier is a species of requiem shark and the only member of the genus Galeocerdo. Mature sharks average 3.25 to 4.25 m (11 to 17 ft) long and weigh 385 to 635 kilograms (850 to 1,400 lb). It can attain a length of over 3 m (12 ft) and a weight of 1,110 kg (2,060 lb) at maximum. It is found in many of the tropical and temperate regions of the world's oceans, and is especially common around islands in the central Pacific. This shark is a solitary hunter, usually hunting at night. Its name is derived from the dark stripes down its body, which fade as the shark matures.

The tiger shark is a predator, known for eating a wide range of items. Its usual diet consists of fish, seals, birds, smaller sharks, squid, turtles, and dolphins. It has sometimes been found with man-made waste such as license plates or pieces of old tires in its digestive tract and is often referred to as "the wastebasket of the sea".

This shark may be easily identified due to its dark stripes which are similar to a tiger pattern. It also has dorsal fins that are distinctively close to its tail. These sharks are often large in size and may encounter humans because they often visit shallow reefs, harbours and canals.

Second only to the great white shark in number of recorded attacks on humans, the tiger shark is considered, along with the great white, bull shark and the oceanic whitetip shark to be one of the sharks most dangerous to humans. This may be due to its aggressive nature and frequency of human contact as it often inhabits populated waters such as Hawaiian beaches.

Read more at Wikipedia