A group of Australian scientists studying marine life off the coast of Queensland have discovered something surprising: a tiger shark that had regurgitated a spiky, hedgehog-like animal called an echidna. Former James Cook University PhD student Nicholas Lubitz and his team Tagged trip May 2022 The discovery is believed to be a world first, and the team speculates that the shark may have caught the echidna as it swam in the shallow waters around the island or between the islands.
“We were pretty shocked by what we saw. We had no idea what was going on.” Lubitz said in a statement.“As soon as it spat it out, I looked at it and said, ‘What the heck?’ Someone told me to take a picture so I rushed for my phone. I only got one picture, but you can see the outline of the echidna in the water.”
When the tiger shark spat it out, the echidna’s carcass was still whole with its spine and legs still intact, suggesting it had been a recent meal for the roughly nine-foot-long shark.
“It was a decent-sized tiger shark, but not huge. Tiger sharks very rarely regurgitate food, but they can do so if they’re stressed,” Lubitz said. “In this case, I think the echidna just felt a bit of discomfort in its throat.”
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Many animals may vomit after ingesting something they shouldn’t. Ambergris During the heyday of commercial whaling, it was also used in perfumery, medicines and as a spice. Frogand Horse There are some notable exceptions to the vomiting rule: Rodents may instead eat substances with no nutritional value, such as clay or dirt, Dilutes toxins Instead of excreting it from their bodies, the frog Vomit the entire stomach It’s time to inject something toxic instead.
Tiger sharks Voracious Appetite and, The ocean’s most avid scavengerLubitz said tiger sharks have been recorded swallowing seabirds, tires, license plates and television screens. The tiger shark was unharmed during the bizarre encounter and was even fitted with an acoustic tracking device before the team released it back into the ocean.
In a separate discovery, another tiger shark that the team had previously tagged coughed up what appeared to be half a dugong.
“It vomited up a big piece of fat and then it vomited up a whole spine. We believe it was a baby dugong,” Lubitz said.
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The scientists Queensland Integrated Ocean Observing System Acoustic Telemetry Array ProjectResearchers fitted acoustic and satellite tracking devices to a range of marine life, including snappers, mullets, sandfish and several species of sharks. They also installed acoustic receivers along the Queensland coast between 2020 and 2023 to collect data on the marine life living there. To date, the project has fitted 812 animals with 10-year tracking devices from north of the Gold Coast to the Torres Strait. Full data downloads from the array will be available at the end of the year.
“There have been acoustic receivers along the Queensland coastline before, but they’ve been somewhat fragmented and haven’t picked up much of the larger movements,” Lubitz said. “The Queensland Array has allowed us to fill in a lot of the gaps, and through that work we’ve been able to capture the movements of species such as long-billed rays, which were never thought to be migratory, as they migrated from Townsville to the Sunshine Coast. They’re a critically endangered species, and we’ve captured and tagged some that were nearly three metres long.” [9.8 feet] length.”