Wednesday, April 29, 2009

She's back!


Good girl!!!

We've last seen her in November where she was hugely pregnant.
She came in high, inspected the clients as usual but then circled and circled, clearly interested but never quite motivated enough to sweep in for a snack, to the point where in his frustration, Rusi decided to swim up through the water column and stuff a Tuna head into her mouth. But even then, she wouldn't swallow it but kept it between her teeth, circled once more and swam away.

The way we interpreted it was that she was ready to pop, had developed an according feeding inhibition (Tigers are cannibals and something must prevent the mothers from preying on the pups) and would leave shortly to give birth in some protected habitat. Judging from what we had experienced during her past pregnancies, we ventured the prediction that she would likely abscond for several months - and voilà!
And talk about following some inner clock: last time, she came back on April 24 - this time, on April 27. How cool is that!

Anyway, she finally turned up on Monday and was big, beautiful, mellow and ravenous like always!
Great that she's once again made it back unscathed!

But check her out: all skinny and with a flabby empty stomach! The good news being that there's plenty of space for Tuna heads in there and that we might be seeing much more of her in the days to come! Great for Lill and also, for Sasha who's currently visiting!

By the way, Tigers are unique among the Carcharhinids in being aplacental viviparous, having a caudal keel, having a peculiar inverse-tear-shaped pupil, having can-opener teeth...
And...?

Think: respiration!
First one that gives the correct answer gets a Shark dive for free!

And lemme tell you - if you love Tiger Sharks and haven't noticed...
I can see it in the pic!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bula, Mike, fantastic diving today - 30 bulls in good viz - I got some shots ;) Hoping for Scarface and extended my stay until Aug 8 !

DaShark said...

August 8?

You wanna become an Islander?

Well, welcome - stay as long as you please! Can't wait to see the pics!

Wolfgang Leander said...

Scarface is a GREAT girl - wish I could meet her one day.....

Wolf

Anonymous said...

Am I still allowed to answer the question?

As I was informed and educated the other night, Tiger sharks have a spiracle which is an opening behind the eye as seen in rays.

According to another website Spiny Dogfish also have one. http://www.marinebiodiversity.ca/shark/english/spiracle.htm

DaShark said...

Well well Karen!

That's of course the correct answer!

Hey and you Tigeraholics out there - have you ever noticed?
Wolf?

If you haven't, check out the pic and you'll see it right there behind the eye, below that short horizontal white stripe.

No idea if it's still really functional in aiding the intake of water to the gills - but still, amazing huh?

Karen you get a free Shark dive! Meaning, I do expect to see you in Fiji!