This large, powerful, solitary tiger shark cruises the coastal and offshore water of tropical seas. It will travel up to fifty miles a day, rarely stopping except to eat. In summer the tiger shark may follow warm water currents as far south as New Zealand, or north to Japan or the northern United States. In winter it stays closer to the equator near the coral reefs of the Caribbean and the Pacific and Indian Oceans where it is the largest and most dominant of all the reef predators, eating anything it can find. The tiger shark tends to stay in the deep waters on the fringe of reefs, occasionally penetrating the channels to attack in the shallows. It glides day and night over the reef and ocean bed.

The tiger shark is an indiscriminate feeder; it will eat anything. In addition to its main diet of fish squid, sea turtles, seals and smaller sharks, items such as car license plates and gasoline cans washed away to the ocean from the shores can be found in their stomach. A tiger shark has a large mouth and massive, powerful jaws lined with flat triangular notched teeth with serrated edges. As teeth are broken or lost, new teeth grow in to replace them. The tiger shard has good eyesight, but it relies mostly on other senses to track and catch its prey. It has an acute sense of smell, which enables it to pick up even the faintest traces of blood in the water from miles and follow them in their source. It is also sensitive to low-frequency pressure waves produced by movements in the water. Even tiny nerve and muscle twinges reach its sensitive electroreceptors, so the shark can pinpoint prey in the darkest, murkiest water. Once a tiger shark has located its prey, it may circle it for a while or nudge it with its snout before making the kill. The final attack is frenzied; the shark will devour anything in its path.

Most fish produce large numbers of eggs that are fertilized by sperm ejected into the water. Sharks, however, breed by internal fertilization like mammals do. During mating, one of the male’s pelvic fins is introduced into the female’s genital opening to act as a guide for the sperm. Mating can be painful for the female, since the male will often use his teeth to hold her still. The young (between 10 and 80 in each brood) are nourished inside their mother’s body for approximately nine months. When they are born, they are completely independent and equipped with a full set of teeth. They are able to swim away as soon as they emerge and begin to hunt for themselves immediately.

 

The tiger shark has been responsible for more fatal attacks on man than any other species on shark. Because it will eat anything, including man, it is one of the most feared sharks in tropical waters. Most killer sharks are not man-eaters; they may attack or kill people, but they won’t actually eat the remains. But accounts of tiger sharks swallowing their human victims have been reported. In one report, a tiger shark attacked two men and a woman on a life raft, killed and swallowed one of the men, and then came back to snatch the woman! Their companion reached the safety of a nearby reef and escaped unharmed. Still, despite such tales, some shark experts and divers insist that tiger sharks are really quite gentle. But the common perception for most people is that the tiger shark means trouble

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