Sharks are afraid of Dolphins as humans are afraid of several things, depending upon the size or phobias. But have you ever heard that giant creatures get frightened too? Yes, they do.
Isn’t it strange that a huge build like sharks avoids cute, friendly, and playful Dolphins? Here we have piled all the reasons why?
Size of Sharks and Dolphins
Sharks have bigger body than dolphins that make them scary for other underwater species. On the other hand, dolphins are smaller in size; the great white shark is 23 feet in length, having 5,000 pounds weight.
Average adult dolphins are 7.2 to 8.9 feet only. Then what makes sharks afraid of dolphins;
- Echolocation: Dolphins are fast and intelligent. They can escape easily in a matter of seconds.
- Dolphins attack in groups called pods. If a shark attacks one Dolphin, it has to fight against a pod for its survival. That’s why sharks avoid dolphins.
Some sharks get lucky to run away by simply fleeing from a fight once they realize they are in peril. But if the shark is bold enough and sticks to fight the ground, the dolphins might prove that they are dominant creatures of the ocean.
Dolphin vs. shark fight
The body of dolphins is uniquely designed, providing them an upper hand in Dolphin vs. shark fight.
- Dolphins have sharp and massive SNOUT. During a fight with dolphins’ enemies, it moves downside their enemy and attack with a snout on the soft inner soft belly part to hurt their stomach. That leads to serious internal injuries. And if the snout is well placed into shark gills, it may kill the shark. But dolphins do this to scare away the sharks before targeting their stomach. The strongest reason is making sharks afraid of dolphins.
- Sharks are cartilaginous fishes that mean only their teeth don’t contain cartilage. But Dolphins have soft skin combined with flexible skeletal joints that gives them the upper hand in moving actively in all possible directions during the fight. In comparison, the cartilage skeleton of sharks can’t perform well against Dolphins in this regard. So sharks prefer to escape the fight.
- The killer whales are the biggest representative of Dolphins known to kill sharks, even the white shark. They attack white sharks with their massive and strong tail. This attack makes the white shark immobile. Whales prefer to eat the liver of white sharks and throw away their body. This ferocious act of whales (dolphins) makes sharks frighten. So whenever they see a whale coming their way, they flee immediately.
If only one Dolphin fights against a shark, the enormous number of teeth and the size of the shark can kill the Dolphin. But the fact that the dolphins travel in a pod makes it hard for a shark to sniff around. Even when a shark comes near a baby dolphin, a pod scares away the shark.
Dolphin’s enemies
The marine food chain also works like the human world; the stronger entity eats, the weaker one. Despite the intelligence or flexibility of dolphins, sharks eat dolphins.
We can say that all the physical and mental intelligence of dolphins is provided to save them from dolphins’ enemies. Sharks eat weak, sick, and baby dolphins.
Orcas even eat on white sharks. They kill them to feed on their liver when hungry. But as a result, the aggressive nature of dolphins that activates their self-defense mechanism can kill sharks. Due to this, dolphins often save humans from shark attacks. For example;
Suppose any shark intends to attack a baby Dolphin or a lonely dolphin who is lost and the ocean and unfortunately falls prey to the shark.
If these dolphins manage to escape, the shark should have to get prepared for a group attack of dolphins because the victim dolphin calls their pod for help.
When Sharks beats Dolphin?
Sharks are afraid of dolphins, but they are predators, hence Dolphin’s enemies. Sharks can win over dolphins only when they are in an unknown or blind spot. Otherwise, their intelligence and echolocation help them to navigate their path abruptly.
Whenever they sense any danger, they call for help by making a series of clicking sounds and whistles. They know how to protect themselves.
The pitch of sound allows the pod to decipher who is calling. Dolphins stick to the motto “unity is strength.”
If you are a marine creature lover and this article was not enough to give you a spoonful of fun information.
There are some more fun facts aligned in our article DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHARKS AND DOLPHINS. Sharks are fishes, while Dolphins are mammals just like humans, but why do they live in an aquatic environment as sharks do? Find out