rhamphotheca: Sharks Eating Songbirds in the Gulf of Mexico by Rachel Kaufman What’s a songbird doing in the belly of a tiger shark? The predators are eating land birds affected by offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico (map), according to new research. Marcus Drymon, of Dauphin Island Sea Lab, has been studying fish off the Alabama coast since 2006. During a routine sampling in 2009, he pulled a tiger shark onto the deck of his boat to tag and release it. “He coughed up some feathers,” Drymon said. That in itself wasn’t unusual, he said. Tiger sharks in other parts of the world are known to eat marine birds. But once Drymon analyzed the feathers in the lab, he was fairly sure they had come from a terrestrial bird. So Drymon and his team launched a project to study the sharks’ diets. Over two years the team caught 50 tiger sharks—mostly within 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 kilometers) offshore—and dissected their stomachs. In about half of the sharks, Drymon found “feathers, or beaks, or bird feet, or some kind of bird part.” All the parts were later found to originate from land birds such as woodpeckers, tanagers, and meadowlarks… (read more: National Geo)     (image: Brian Skerry) Oh tiger sharks, you so crazy

rhamphotheca:

Sharks Eating Songbirds in the Gulf of Mexico

by Rachel Kaufman

What’s a songbird doing in the belly of a tiger shark?

The predators are eating land birds affected by offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico (map), according to new research. Marcus Drymon, of Dauphin Island Sea Lab, has been studying fish off the Alabama coast since 2006. During a routine sampling in 2009, he pulled a tiger shark onto the deck of his boat to tag and release it.

“He coughed up some feathers,” Drymon said.

That in itself wasn’t unusual, he said. Tiger sharks in other parts of the world are known to eat marine birds. But once Drymon analyzed the feathers in the lab, he was fairly sure they had come from a terrestrial bird. So Drymon and his team launched a project to study the sharks’ diets. Over two years the team caught 50 tiger sharks—mostly within 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 kilometers) offshore—and dissected their stomachs.

In about half of the sharks, Drymon found “feathers, or beaks, or bird feet, or some kind of bird part.” All the parts were later found to originate from land birds such as woodpeckers, tanagers, and meadowlarks…

(read more: National Geo)     (image: Brian Skerry)

Oh tiger sharks, you so crazy

tagged as Galeocerdo. tiger shark. shark. sharks. Elasmobranchii.

via shaaarks

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  6. loflower reblogged this from shaaarks and added:
    Creeptastic. What if you ran into a tiger shark, just chillin like 100 feet from the ocean?
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    Oh tiger sharks, you so crazy
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    Why yes, here is a pictures of my pet shark.
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