Tiger Sharks Controlling Marine Population
The Galeocerdo Cuvier or the Tiger Shark is one of the highest predators in the marine wood web. As a tertiary consumer, it has the widest variety in its diet including Dolphins, small sharks, large fish and garbage. They are frequently found throughout tropical waters and tend to stay in deeper areas of the ocean. They are impressive hunters with keen eyesight and smell. Their teeth are shaped specifically to break sea turtle shells with sharp, serrated edges. Tiger sharks are also known as “swimming garbage disposals” due to their stereotype of eating anything and everything. However, Tiger Sharks play a very important niche as the keystone in their environment. They are very important to their …show more content…
They have an efficient diet that protects the other fish from contagious marine illnesses. The tiger sharks typically prey upon sick, slow or injured fish, not because they are easily hunted, but because it helps prevent the life in aquatic ecosystems from getting ill, too. Also, these sharks have a high status in the food web and use their intimidation to prevent food shortages like over grazed seagrasses and other main food sources for aquatic life. They also feed upon over populated species to prevent unusual numbers in the ecosystems’ food web.
Trophic cascade is how an alteration in behavior of one species affects all the other organisms. This is one of the main things tiger sharks prevent from happening. If the population of secondary consumers like mackerels, tuna fish, and squid were to become unusually high, the tiger sharks would primarily feed on those fish rather than animals that had happened to be low in population. This behavior they have keeps an ecological balance within their ecosystems. However, if the tiger shark population continues to decrease, there could be a major trophic cascade and no organism would be able to balance it
The Galeocerdo Cuvier or the Tiger Shark is one of the highest predators in the marine wood web. As a tertiary consumer, it has the widest variety in its diet including Dolphins, small sharks, large fish and garbage. They are frequently found throughout tropical waters and tend to stay in deeper areas of the ocean. They are impressive hunters with keen eyesight and smell. Their teeth are shaped specifically to break sea turtle shells with sharp, serrated edges. Tiger sharks are also known as “swimming garbage disposals” due to their stereotype of eating anything and everything. However, Tiger Sharks play a very important niche as the keystone in their environment. They are very important to their …show more content…
They have an efficient diet that protects the other fish from contagious marine illnesses. The tiger sharks typically prey upon sick, slow or injured fish, not because they are easily hunted, but because it helps prevent the life in aquatic ecosystems from getting ill, too. Also, these sharks have a high status in the food web and use their intimidation to prevent food shortages like over grazed seagrasses and other main food sources for aquatic life. They also feed upon over populated species to prevent unusual numbers in the ecosystems’ food web.
Trophic cascade is how an alteration in behavior of one species affects all the other organisms. This is one of the main things tiger sharks prevent from happening. If the population of secondary consumers like mackerels, tuna fish, and squid were to become unusually high, the tiger sharks would primarily feed on those fish rather than animals that had happened to be low in population. This behavior they have keeps an ecological balance within their ecosystems. However, if the tiger shark population continues to decrease, there could be a major trophic cascade and no organism would be able to balance it