12/01/2022
Croc vs shark ๐๐ฆ when apex predators meet who has the edge?
Photos and caption by
โItโs an old debate but a bit if a moot point here given the large size difference between this nile crocodile and a Zambezi (bull) shark pup.
Above average rainfall inland along the South African east coast this year has led to high volume river discharges and an abundance of food for these predators at the mouth of river estuaries as freshwater species are washed down river into saline coastal waters. It also appears to provide ideal nursery and pupping sites for the bull sharks, with numerous young sharks sighted over the past weekend.
Still, it remains an interesting question: what does happen when large sharks meet large crocodiles in the same place? More likely than not they probably avoid each other. Even such large predators at the top of the food chain are inherently wary and tend to avoid risking injury or deathโฆbesides, in this case at least they have plenty of other food to keep them busy for now!
This photo was recently published in the African Journal of Marine Science in an article on the rapid response of bull sharks to the opening of the St Lucia Estuary in South Africa. A few days after opening the sharks moved in to pup in the estuary mouth. Several fishermen were in the area, some of whom had caught some of the pups. While they were all released, we suspect this one may have broken a line off. It was alive when the croc had grabbed it, but it's difficult to say if the line had made it easier for the croc to catch it... quite possible it was snagged on something. Goes to show that not only are these sharks affected by habitat loss of their estuarine breeding habitats, but when moving between sea and estuary, they also run the gauntlet between natural predators, and in this case (inadvertently we believe) of recreational fishers.โ