Have you ever seen a great white shark taking a nap before? If not, then you're going to want to feast your eyes!
Discovery published the following video on their YouTube channel for Shark Week claiming to be the first time a shark taking a nap in its natural habitat has ever been caught on footage.
The footage was captured by a camera team that was tracking a specific shark from above the water’s surface at about 8:30 P.M., suggesting it was possibly the shark’s bedtime after an exhausting day of swimming and hunting.
The shark was swimming just off of the coast of Guadalupe Island in the Pacific Ocean and you can see how the shark goes from being active to suddenly dozing off. During the trance-like state, the shark’s mouth begins to open up and the shark’s bodily behavior slows down.
The shark was cruising through a current that was moving at around 3 kilometers per hour, which provided the shark with the propulsion needed to continue moving as it napped in a lower-power state. The rushing water moved along her gills to provide her with the oxygen she needed during the nap.
If the shark had not been moving, there would not have been enough water rushing past the shark’s gills to help her absorb oxygen and she would have likely sunk to the bottom of the ocean where she would have suffocated from the lack of oxygen flow through her gills.
The interesting behavior noted by the team just before the nap was how the shark was staying very close to the land mass, but was also staying very deep in the water to hide from prey. In the event that an opportunity to feast would arise, the shark could then swim upwards and snag its prey.
Also read: Infographic: Shark Week Reloaded
Source: YouTube via Gizmodo