Shark spits out spiky land-loving creature in entrance of shocked scientists in Australia

A tiger shark has stunned Australian scientists on an ocean analysis journey by regurgitating a spiky land-loving echidna in entrance of them.

Researchers from James Cook dinner College stated Thursday they have been tagging marine life on the northeast coast when the three-meter tiger shark they caught vomited a useless echidna — a spiny creature just like a hedgehog.

Nicolas Lubitz stated he might solely assume the shark wolfed up the echidna — often known as spiny anteaters — whereas it was swimming within the shallows off the island, or travelling between islands, which the animals are identified to do.

“We have been fairly shocked at what we noticed. We actually did not know what was happening,” he stated Thursday.  “When it spat it out, I checked out it and remarked ‘What the hell is that?'”

Lubitz stated that he scrambled to get his telephone. “I managed to solely get one image, however you possibly can see the define of the echidna within the water,” he stated.

Lubitz stated the useless echidna was entire when it was regurgitated in Might 2022, main scientists to imagine the shark had solely lately eaten it.  

Echidnas — that are solely present in Australia and New Guinea — are egg-laying mammals, have spines protruding from their our bodies and use a beak-like snout to eat ants. In accordance with WWF, throughout breeding season, echidnas wish to type a “practice” during which as much as 10 male echidnas comply with a feminine within the hopes of turning into her mate.

It’s unclear what number of of those animals are within the wild.

“Tiger sharks will eat something. They’re only a scavenger. I’ve seen movies of them consuming a rock for no purpose,” Lubitz stated.  “I feel the echidna should have simply felt a bit humorous in its throat.”

The tiger shark was unhurt after its spiky snack and scientists fitted it with an acoustic tracker earlier than releasing it again into the water.

As a part of the analysis venture, which ran from 2020 to 2023, scientists tagged 812 fish, rays and sharks with 10-year trackers to know extra about their motion and habits.

Tiger sharks are ranked second by the Worldwide Shark Assault File for the variety of unprovoked assaults on people, behind white sharks. Final yr, a Russian man died after being mauled by a tiger shark at certainly one of Egypt’s Pink Sea resorts.

Whereas echidnas usually are not thought-about endangered, a selected sort of the animal — Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna — is taken into account critically endangered on the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature’s crimson listing. One was captured on digital camera final yr for the primary time in many years.