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tropical seas. It travels about 50 miles a day rarely stopping except to eat. During the summer the tiger shark followes warm water currents as far south as New Zealand, north of Japan, or the northern United States. In winter it stays closer to the equator near the coral reefs of the Caribbean and the Pacific and Indian Oceans. This is the largest and most dominant of all the reef predators, eating anything it can find.

Tiger sharks tend to stay in the deep waters on the fringe of reefs. Occasionally they penetrate the channels to attack in the shallows. It glides day and night over the reef and ocean beds. When they are young, the dark stripes that give the tiger shark its name are clearly visible on a young animal but will fade away as it grows older.

How do tiger sharks hunt and what do they eat? It is an indiscriminate feeder. It will eat anything. Its main diet is fish but it will also eat squid, sea turtles, seals, and smaller sharks. Sometimes car license plates and gasoline cans have been found in its stomach. A tiger shark has a large mouth and massive, powerful jaws lined with flat, triangular, notched teeth with serrated edges. As teeth are broken or lost, new teeth grow in to replace them. Dentists would be out of business if humans had that power!

While the tiger shark has good eyesight, it relies mostly on other senses to track and catch its prey. Its acute sense of smell enables it to pick up even the faintest traces of blood in water and follow them to their source. This is a fact that the wise people on the beach must remember if they have any wounds with fresh blood to definitely not go swimming for their sake and the sake of those swimming with them. In addition, if one is hurt in the water or has a bloody nose to get out at once.

The tiger shark is sensitive to low-frequency waves produced by movements in the water. Swimming in the dark where sharks are may be an adventure you may never return from. It is so very inviting and romantic but save the moonlight swimming and skinny dipping for the lakes or pools. Even the tiny nerve and muscle twinges reach its sensitive electroreceptors, so the shark can pinpoint a prey in the darkest, murkiest water.

"Once the tiger shark has located its prey, it may circle it for a while or nudge it with its snout before making the kill. The final attack is frenzied; the shark will devour anything in its path." So the Wildlife Fact-File says! A photo illustrates how its powerful jaws and teeth are pushed out

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