Friday, August 15, 2014

Weird Shark #7: The Nurse Shark


Nurse sharks aren't here because they look particularly funny looking, although they are kinda funny looking--they have very cat like eyes.  It's here primarily because is so dang smart.  While evidence is mounting that most sharks are a heck of a more brainy than they have ever been given credit for, Nurse Sharks demonstrate this in the wild.  A dives, especially those that involve feeding by divers, they've demonstrated an ability to think things through enough to gain advantages over other types of sharks being fed--usually Caribbean Reef Sharks.  In one documentary on the Discovery channel, this was shown to particularly true of a male nurse shark who had worked out how to break into the bait box, he was the only nurse shark on the scene and the divers running the dive knew him--and he was so damn sly about it!  Another interesting fact about them, is that they like the "lay around"--exploding the idea that all sharks must move forward or die (actually a lot of sharks lay about on ocean floors, even bury themselves for ambush).  Contrary to popular belief Nurse Sharks are not entirely harmless to humans--so have a care around them please!



Above video is a bit hard to see, but it's clear this shark is thinking things through, not merely rams the bait sack.  The below video was actually shot in Florida.

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