The Great White Shark Art Sculpture
by Leigh Heppell
The Great White Shark - Carcharodon carcharias
Size - 16 - 36 feet in length.
Diet - fish, rays and other sharks when young. Larger
prey, including sea lions, small toothed whales, otters, sea turtles, and
dead animals found floating in the water are eaten by Great Whites.
Habitat - near shore along most of the temperate coastlines
around the entire world..
Reproduction - Great
White sharks are ovoviviparous (egg bearing) and give birth to 2 - 14 fully-formed
pups that can be 5 feet long. Like all sharks, fertilization of the eggs
occurs within the female. The eggs hatch within the female. No placenta
nourishes the babies. They must fend for themselves, even before birth and
swim away from the mother immediately after birth.
The Great White is found throughout temperate and subtropical
regions of the world's oceans. A voracious and efficient predator, its prey
includes a wide variety of bony fishes, including salmon, hake, halibut,
mackerel and tunas, other sharks, sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals.
The Great White can grow to 21 feet and weigh 4,000 pounds. It is the world's
largest ocean predator but attacks on humans are rare.
The Great White has a white belly, a dark back, and reaches a swimming speed
of 25 mph. It can leap out of the water while attacking its prey from below
and behind.