Shark vs crocodile - whose jaws are more dangerous?

Shark is a dangerous and predatory inhabitant of sea waters, bringing awe to almost the entire human tribe, has a number of impressive rivals. killer whales and whales. She also suffers from her own relatives - stronger and larger specimens.

Even a cold-blooded crocodile against a shark can use its stranglehold, which has killed more than one large animal.

Surprisingly, but fights between sharks and crocodiles are not so rare. Proof of this is the image of the battle between the crocodile and the shark on the coat of arms of the city of Surabaya. The battles between them are always bloody and merciless. Each of the rivals has power and dexterity, so the outcome of the battles is not predictable.

Let's try to analyze and compare a crocodile and a shark in a possible fight.

Predator clashes

For many people, it will be a discovery that some species of crocodiles are tolerant to the salt water of the seas. These are the crocodile caiman, and the Nile crocodile, and the African narrow-necked and sharp-nosed crocodiles.

The natural habitat of many predatory sharks - seas and oceans - is not a hindrance to them. And, for example, a combed crocodile can even swim far into the open sea, where it is possible to meet a dangerous and cunning enemy in the form of a shark. There are frequent cases when and where crocodiles live.

Causes of possible collisions between a crocodile and a shark

Large species of crocodiles feed mainly on fish, so the shark for them, first of all, is an object of hunting. Small bottom species of sharks for crocodiles are no different from other inhabitants of the seas that serve as food.

Large shark species are opponents and competitors in the struggle for food. Shark attacks, knowing them, are nothing out of the ordinary.

Watch the video - Crocodile vs Shark:

Sizes and morphological features of opponents

If we consider the shark and the crocodile as equal opponents, then it is worth paying attention to the large species of these animals. Adults of certain types of crocodiles can reach 4-6 meters in length (crested crocodile), which is close to.

All crocodiles are characterized by a long, high tail, compressed from the sides, which allows them to swim well and maneuver in the water. The presence of webbing on the hind legs also characterizes crocodiles as swimmers. The scutes, located throughout the body, play the role of a kind of shell. And, formed by the ribs and some other bones, the chest fully protects the internal organs.

Teeth, like those of sharks, change throughout life, but they "hold" more firmly in the jaw. Sharks have the same.

In crocodiles, the jaw muscles are well developed, so their compression force is enormous and significantly exceeds that of sharks. And due to the fact that pressure-sensitive receptor cells are located between the teeth, the crocodile can control the force of compression.

Due to the fact that crocodiles have a bone skeleton, they will have more weight if they are equal in size with a shark.

Strength, dexterity and agility

A crocodile, seemingly slow and sluggish on land, can develop significant speed in water. With the help of the movement of the tail and body from side to side, the crocodile moves like a fish.

It is thanks to the developed musculature of the tail and trunk in some cases, especially in moments of danger or during hunting, that the crocodile can jump vertically out of the water. The tail is not only a means of transportation, but also a dangerous weapon with which the animal can defend itself from rivals and even jam fish.

Hunting tricks of crocodiles and sharks

The shark, as we already know, can make circles around the alleged victim. And the frequent attacks inflicted by the shark, accompanied by bites, can lead to significant blood loss from the opponent. With shark fever, predators lose control and become uncontrollable. In this case, it is problematic to predict the further actions of the shark.

Crocodiles can, clutching the jaws of the victim, carry it under the water. Small fish can be thrown out of the water, or they can be seized by a sharp turn of the head to the side, which significantly reduces the resistance of the water to the head.

With large enemies or victims, the crocodile handles a little differently - by firmly grabbing the victim with its jaws, the crocodile makes a sharp turn of 360 degrees, thus tearing out a piece of flesh or bending the opponent's neck. Also, a crocodile can keep its teeth interlocked for a long time until the victim weakens.

Video - Fight of a crocodile and a shark for a turtle carcass:

Results of fights of a crocodile with a shark

For the filming of the documentary "Battles of Beasts", scientists created robotic models that possessed the skills, strength and reactions of some animals. Based on this, scientists could predict the outcome of the battle between a white shark and a combed crocodile.

Watch the video - Battle of the crocodile and the shark:

In this battle, victory was for the shark, but many biologists consider this to be just a lucky coincidence. The power and strength of the crocodile's jaws exceeds those of sharks, which can easily lead to serious damage and death of the shark.

Tourists in the Kakadu National Park (Australia) unwittingly witnessed the battle between the crocodile and. As a result of a long and stubborn struggle, the crocodile, having ripped open the shark's belly, came out the winner. Such fights, according to local residents, are not uncommon.

Shark and crocodile, swiftness and grip - who will emerge victorious in the next battle?

Perhaps some of you have wondered more than once: who is stronger, a combed crocodile or a great white shark?

If on the distant islands in Malaysia, off the northern coast of Australia, or in any other places where these animals crossed with each other historically, the answer to this question was determined accurately, then in our time, many people consider this question more than ambiguous.

The crocodile has always personified power, strength and fearlessness among the ancient peoples. These reptiles were feared, respected, worshiped and given gifts. For example, the peoples of Africa have long had a saying: "If you raise your hand to a crocodile, then remember that there will be a fight that you will not be able to withstand." In the Philippines, local tribes seriously believed that "crocodiles are under a spell and therefore no one can kill them," and in ancient China, the power of crocodiles was compared to a typhoon or other major natural disasters. However, due to myths leaking from everywhere, due to feature and "documentary" films and other baseless lies and PR that began in the 1950s, in our time, many people prefer sharks.

Before we try to analyze the real abilities and combat potential of the crocodile and shark, I will analyze some mistakes made by people when analyzing this issue and mention many of the physical characteristics of animals, which are often misinterpreted in such analyzes. Of course, it will be based on real facts known about these animals and recorded in reliable sources, and not subjective speculation:

1) Is there a big difference in size?

In other words, the white shark is actually no larger than a combed crocodile. Exactly and vice versa. In Runet, there is a lot of information about 8 ... 9 ... 12 meter sharks or crocodiles. But all this, of course, is nothing more than an exaggeration or old, unverifiable data.

The record size of a white shark, which does not raise any questions in terms of reliability, is 6.1 m, the approximate mass is about 1900 kg (or rather even about 2200 kg, if you use a formula derived from regression from Timothy C. Tricas and John E. McCosker - This shark was caught in the waters of Prince Edward Island in 1988. Also in the Guinness Book of Records there is data on the capture of a shark of the same length, but having a monstrous body girth of 5.64 m. 3 meter dinghy.
On average, adult white sharks reach about 4.3-4.9 meters in length with a mass in the region of 680-1100 kg. At the same time, females are noticeably larger than males. Sharks reach sexual maturity at almost their maximum individual length, and the growth rates that persist throughout their life no longer allow them to reach significantly larger sizes.

According to the book "Crocodiles of Australia" by Grahame Webb and S. Charlie Manolis, the typical size of a fully grown male combed crocodile is 4.6-5.2 m, and a fully grown female is 3.1-3.4 m. The weight of male crocodiles this length can be estimated at approximately 450-680 kg. Crocodiles do not grow all their lives, but after reaching puberty, their active growth does not stop and continues for some time.
The largest combed crocodile, which Adam Britton considers to be reliable, was measured (or rather, not he himself measured, but his dried skin and skull) in Papua New Guinea in 1983. The crocodile's skin and skull folded together were 6.2 meters long, although since this method of measurement underestimates the length of a living crocodile, during life this animal was 6.3 meters long, according to Adam Britton (http://crocodilian.com/cnhc /cbd-faq-q2.htm), or even 6.7 meters, as Webb and Manolis suggested in Australian Crocodiles. The mass of this crocodile, respectively, could be approximately 1.3 to 1.6 tons.
However, the record skull of a combed crocodile, originating from Cambodia and kept in the Paris Museum, indicates that the length of this animal during life was even longer than that of the previous specimen, and was about 6.84 m, and its mass was more than 1.6 tons. Initially, 7 meters of length indicated for this sample (with an approximate mass of about 1.8 tons) are also possible with such a skull length, but have not been confirmed.

So, there is no monstrous discrepancy in size in favor of either side. Here, one should take into account the fact that a shark, being a completely aquatic animal, has a body density approximately equal to that of water, and thus it may well be heavier than a crocodile even with the same volume and linear dimensions.
Statements ala "a crocodile with the same size will have more weight due to the bone skeleton" and other nonsense cited by such narrow-minded people as the author of the article from akully.ru, of course, should simply be ignored. The skeleton makes up a relatively small percentage of the total body weight in vertebrates: in humans, for example, it occupies only 16-18% of the total body weight, while the dried and fat-free skeleton, i.e. devoid of water and organic matter (also included in the cartilage of sharks), it weighs half as much.

2) The real bite force of both animals.

You can often find information about the supposedly powerful jaws of a great white shark. Like, even exceeding the strength of the jaw of crocodiles and making the white shark a "new record holder"!

In fact, no normal white shark bite force measurements have yet been made. Unless, Brady Barr received a figure of 303 kg when measuring the bite force of ~ 500 kg of a shark that pounced on the bait.
A hypothetical calculation of the bite force of a great white shark, in turn, is given by S. Wroe, DR Huber, M. Lowry, C. McHenry, K. Moreno, P. Clausen, TL Ferrara, E. Cunningham, MN Dean and AP Summers, "Three- dimensional computer analysis of white shark jaw mechanics: how hard can a great white bite? ".
The maximum number obtained is 18216 N, i.e. ~ 1800 kg. However, a shark once caught in Cuba was mistakenly chosen as a record individual, which in fact turned out to be much smaller than it was reported: well, not 6.4 m in length and in no way 3324 kg of weight. Experts who estimated the size of this individual from the photo, estimated it at only 5 meters. If you take a white shark a third less weight - i.e. close to the record 2 tons, the bite force estimated by this method will already be noticeably lower - in the region of 13400 N or ~ 1340 kg. In principle, the data on bite force obtained by Vroe et al. For the white shark are consistent with real measurements of bite force in other shark species, and can be considered relatively reliable (probably, this is almost the only normally performed calculation of bite force by 3D modeling method among those that I know).

For the combed crocodile, Gregory M. Erickson, Paul M. Gignac, Scott J. Steppan, A. Kristopher Lappin, Kent A. Vliet, "Insights into the Ecology and Evolutionary Success of Crocodilians Revealed through Bite-Force and Tooth -Pressure Experimentation "for a 1308 kg individual, the bite force is calculated at approximately 3.5 tons (34424 N). This number is much higher than the maximum bite force estimate of ~ 1800 kg for a non-existent 3324 kg shark. At the same time, a 4.49-meter high combed crocodile, the bite force of which was not calculated, but measured by Erickson et al. In practice, bit the sensor with a force of slightly more than 1600 kg. And 5-5.5 m Nile crocodiles produced as much as 2.2 tons, only slightly biting the force sensor that Brady Barr shoved into his mouth! An even higher value of the bite force relative to the size of the animal was obtained by Adam Britton, who measured the bite force of a 4.5-meter-high salted crocodile from a crocodile farm - he received about 2 tons.

It is curious that if we compare the measurements from Erickson and the calculations from Vroe, then the Siamese crocodile weighing 87 kg and the white shark weighing 423 kg have the same bite force of 4577 N or 467 kg. But these methods have one thing: Vroe and co-authors calculated a bilateral shark bite, i.e. pressure on both sides of the jaws. While Erickson et al., Brady Barr and Adam Britton measured one-sided pressure from crocodile bites - i.e. on one side of the jaws. Usually, the bilateral bite force in animals is twice as great as the unilateral one, but the jaw muscles (M. adductor group) in crocodiles effectively distribute the loads, as a result of which the bilateral bite force becomes only 50% stronger than the unilateral one.

So, the force of compression of the jaws of crocodiles is undoubtedly and incomparably higher than that of sharks. Even if sharks are significantly superior in weight to crocodiles, their jaw muscles are not strong enough to generate this kind of load. Actually, in terms of the force of compression of the jaws, crocodiles are relative (that is, per unit mass, here only some lizards, such as Teiids, and "bull frogs", such as slingshots, are comparable to them) and absolute (here they can argue with them, perhaps killer whales) champions among all modern vertebrates. Neither a piranha nor a hyena clenches its jaws with such force as an adult crocodile (in the case of a piranha, of course, hypothetically) of the same weight.

3) Who is the more "fierce" predator?

Now I will write the same thing that the shark defenders are trying to convey to people:
From all shark species, on average, only about 9 people per year die according to world statistics of attacks, conducted since 2000 (according to the GSAF project. Arithmetic mean of fatal attacks). You are much more likely to die when meeting a dog or even a cow than when attacked by a shark. Moreover, even if we talk about the percentage of mortality in relation to the total number of attacks, then sharks (including if you are guided by separate statistics on white sharks) are not in the least superior to large and aggressive breeds of dogs.

And what about crocodiles? In total, crocodiles are more than 100 times more dangerous than all shark species combined. Meeting with crocodiles ends tragically for about 1000 people every year.
If you can somehow fight off a shark, then it is almost impossible to escape from a swift throw of a crocodile. This is also confirmed by statistics. The chance of survival with a shark attack is estimated at 86%, and with a crocodile attack - only 32%, while the length of the attacking reptiles often does not exceed 2 or 3 meters, or the attack is only defensive / territorial / opportunistic.

Of course, crocodiles are more dangerous to humans than sharks. But what does this have to do with "our" meeting of a crocodile and a shark?

It seems that never, among other predators, such a relatively small and weak prey, as happens with sharks, was fought off them in battle!
And it is not necessary to say that people "are not considered by sharks as prey" - white sharks are opportunistic predators (see, for example, http://sharkmans-world.eu/research/carcharodon2.pdf), willingly eating whatever is available for them meat. What was not found in the stomachs of white sharks: sea turtles swallowed whole, three large pieces of moon fish, whale shark meat, small sharks, sea otters, seabirds, herring, sardines, bivalve molluscs, crabs and even completely inedible objects - by them literally everything is eaten. They are not "narrow-minded specialists in pinniped nutrition." Examination of the stomach contents shows that white sharks of any size are primarily ichthyophages (i.e. fish-eaters). Secondly, they also live in such regions (for example, in the Mediterranean Sea) where there are no or almost no pinnipeds. White sharks do not have any selective preference for more high-calorie foods, which has been demonstrated even empirically using baits. So why do white sharks often leave people? After all, a person is not some kind of gastronomic exception for them, especially against the background of crabs, bivalve molluscs, sea urchins and small fish eaten by even the largest sharks. Oddly enough (and I say this in all seriousness, based on the available facts), because a person is able to provide physical resistance to a shark. Sharks simply do not tend to suppress the resistance of prey - young elephant seals, sea lions and baby whales (a rare prey for white sharks) sharks immobilize with bites on the limbs and wait at a safe distance until the sea mammal, unable to swim away and bleeding, eventually chokes. Sometimes the process of killing such prey, which can injure a shark, can continue for several tens of minutes, if not several hours.
When a white shark realizes that a 70 kg swimmer is resisting more actively than almost 50 kg of a fur seal cub (which can only fight back with his teeth, which cannot always reach the face of a shark that has grabbed a seal), she shrugs off and uses exactly the same tactics as against more dangerous animals ... During this time, a person is pulled out of the water, or he himself gets to the coast, since usually attacks take place in the coastal zone. To kill a person instantly, a white shark is simply physically incapable of, since its jaws are poorly adapted to "work" with bones - relatively quickly it can damage them only soft tissues (and then only because of the difference in size with the victim and the thinness of human skin) ...
That's the whole secret of the low fatality rate of shark attacks. Other versions do not stand up to criticism. White sharks also do not tend to protect territory, offspring, and even food sources.

With crocodiles, it's a completely different story. Unlike sharks, they are forced to keep their prey in their teeth, despite its resistance: even with a broken leg, large and strong ungulates are able to get ashore, where even on "three legs" they retain a significant superiority over crocodiles in terms of speed. This is especially true when attacking a victim in shallow water, which is what crocodiles living in isolated reservoirs or shallow swamps often do. Crocodiles are forced to endure and, moreover, even suppress any resistance arising from the victim. They usually do this by vigorous shaking and rotating, often plunging into the water with the victim. The only real chance to escape from the crocodile is to not hesitate to poke it right in the eye, which will trigger a defensive reflex and force the predator to open its jaws. Displacement of the valve in the crocodile's throat can also help, preventing it from choking when underwater with an open mouth. In such a situation, the victim gets the very seconds in which she can get out of the water before a second attack. Although, it does not always work. But it is to fight crocodiles that it is practically useless: surprisingly, even such strong, dodgy and well-armed animals like big cats became victims of the destructive tenacity of these reptiles! There are many known cases when people who had cold steel with them were forced to amputate a limb seized by a crocodile, which it was useless to beat in the hope of making him open his jaws.
Real crocodiles are also characterized by fierce fights with representatives of their own species, sometimes ending in the death of one of the opponents. Especially when it comes to the territorial male ridged crocodiles - the most aggressive and ferocious members of their family. They patrol their territories tirelessly and sometimes even a non-crocodile animal can pounce for no reason. This behavior is most clearly expressed during the breeding season - there are cases when crocodiles irritated by noise tried to attack helicopters flying at low altitude.

So, it is the crocodile that is the very "fierce" predator who knows how to kill large prey and suppress its resistance in battle, and not a frankly non-conflict shark.

Now that we have dealt with the main misconceptions and analyzed many important physical aspects of animals, we can proceed to a more detailed assessment of their combat capabilities, reasons and place of possible meeting. This part analyzes primarily the physical potential of animals, without any focus on their natural behavior.

1) Locations and causes of collision:

The natural habitat of many sharks - the seas and oceans - are not a hindrance to crocodiles, contrary to the common misconception that "crocodiles only live in fresh water." In general, real crocodiles evolved precisely in brackish waters: their ancestors lived in river estuaries, estuaries, mangroves and even on the sea coasts. Actually, all modern true crocodiles and gharials have salt glands and are equally adapted to being in brackish water. But only a few species can be considered partially "marine". Yes, exactly "partially": they are not able to drink salt water and when they are in the sea get it from food, while minimizing the consumption of moisture due to the keratinized oral cavity and changes in the concentration of excretion products. In particular, combed crocodiles, while hunting or searching for new territories, can swim into the open sea, where they can meet with sharks. Recently, it has even been documented that crocodiles deliberately submerge under water at a considerable distance from the coast. The purpose of this kind of action is not clear at the moment, but the most logical option seems to be hunting for large aquatic animals. Great white sharks are pelagic fish that prefer cool waters away from crocodile swimming areas. But still, being sluggish opportunistic predators, they sometimes look for food in warm coastal waters.

Adult male crocodiles tend to prey on large animals. In addition, as stated earlier, they fiercely defend their territory from any kind of intruders. Therefore, knowing the aggression and predatory nature of the crocodile, it is not difficult to imagine its accidental or deliberate attack even on a very large white shark.
An attack from a white shark, in turn, is unlikely. This is due to the rather large size of the crocodile and its ability to fend for itself. Perhaps a shark can try to taste the crocodile "by the teeth", but given the lightning-fast reaction, the widest viewing angle (about 270 degrees, with small blind spots only in the back and front), flexible spine and sensitive receptors covering the entire crocodile's body, the reptile can easily protect yourself and at least drive the shark away, making it think twice before trying to approach the crocodile a second time.

2) Musculature and movement of animals:

The streamlined body of a white shark is well suited for swimming: a 3.5-meter shark can reach speeds of up to 40 km / h for short distances, and a 5.5-meter shark up to 25 km / h. Surprisingly, the combed crocodile is as effective a pelagic swimmer as the great white shark, with a comparable hydrodynamic efficiency coefficient. This means that crocodiles spend as much energy swimming as sharks. Crocodiles are also capable of reaching a decent speed in the region of 24-32 km / h, and diving to a depth of 60 meters, which makes them almost as agile swimmers as white sharks. Paradoxically, crocodiles adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle have more effective buoyancy regulators than sharks: sharks have neutral buoyancy, supported by fat in the liver, and constantly expend efforts to maintain the liver inside the body cavity to the "hepatic-piston mechanism", in crocodiles, buoyancy is positive or negative. This allows reptiles, if desired, to float to the surface, "like a float", or vice versa - to go to the bottom "like a stone", without wasting energy on swimming in the water column.

Shark muscles are pretty primitive. They are not able to control the force of contraction of the white (ie, "force", working in anaerobic mode) muscles, in contrast to bony fishes and, of course, higher vertebrates. In sharks, white muscle fibers literally work on-off. This means shark muscles are always working to their limit when they are designed for great efforts. Red (ie "hardy", working in aerobic mode) muscle fibers in sharks are responsible only for cruising swimming, and other simple movements: yes, it is thanks to them that sharks are constantly in motion and create the illusion of great physical activity. Moreover, the red muscle fibers in large sharks become proportionally slower and weaker compared to those in smaller sharks. Those. large sharks need to increase the number of red muscles in order to simply move and filter water through their gills. Naturally, to the detriment of the amount of white muscle that provides strength for powerful power throws.
It should also be borne in mind that no matter how "calcified" the shark cartilaginous skeleton is, by itself it is unable to secure powerful skeletal muscles and withstand high loads without deformation. Therefore, the muscles of even large white sharks themselves are quite weak. The muscle mass of the white shark is about 70% of the total body weight of the animal, however, one must take into account the fact that a noticeable share of muscle formations serves these fish not for movement, but for creating support for the internal organs: in particular, they have a peculiar analogue (of course, less effective in terms of protecting internal organs) of the ribs.
Large white sharks are able to accumulate relatively more lactate in the blood than small ones, and thus are somewhat more resilient under anaerobic exertion (which is common in all vertebrates). However, relying on anaerobic metabolism and having less oxygen at their disposal (with an increase in linear dimensions, the area of ​​the gills that collects oxygen increases in a square, and the volume that requires oxygen in a cube), they recover much longer than their small relatives. The accumulation of large amounts of lactic acid can also be dangerous for the shark's body - it is known that many mako sharks and track sharks, having smaller sizes and similar metabolic rates (therefore, less vulnerable to anaerobic lactic acidosis), still die after being caught from irreversible metabolic disorders as a result of active muscular activity.

In large crocodiles, white muscles are absolutely predominant. It attaches to strong bones and generates impressive forces. However, its "rest" takes a lot of time, and therefore crocodiles cannot afford a long and very active movement (however, with cruising swimming, keeping the victim in their teeth, etc., their aerobic metabolism is more developed than that of sharks does a great job).
Anaerobic performance in crocodiles is enormous not only due to their large muscle mass (skeletal muscle makes up about 60% of body weight), which leaves little room for internal organs, but also due to their unique resistance to the accumulation of lactate in the blood and muscles. Anaerobic metabolism, quickly using the "fuel" available to the muscles, gives crocodiles truly phenomenal strength in the first couples of the fight!
Large combed crocodiles are champions among all vertebrates in the ability to accumulate the relative and absolute amount of lactate in the blood without harm to themselves. Some of the lactic acid is "deposited" in the osteoderms and bones of the skull, but the main thing is that the crocodile organism itself is extremely resistant to violations of the pH value. This allows them to fight and keep their muscles in "tone" much longer than sharks, and also reduces the risk of metabolic disorders that are dangerous for the body due to an excess of lactic acid. So, large salted crocodiles are able to actively fight for more than 2, and some especially large individuals, as you know, remained active even after 6 hours of struggle, which significantly exceeds the time required to completely exhaust any, even the largest white shark.

In underwater combat, maneuverability is also very important, in which the combed crocodile also surpasses the great white shark. Crocodiles have a very flexible spine in the vertical and horizontal directions (it is known that a crocodile is able to bend so as to be able to bite itself almost at the very base of the tail), which attaches to itself the ungrouped muscles, which allows crocodiles to easily turn around and grab the enemy or prey directly behind your back. The cartilaginous spine of the great white shark itself is quite flexible. But the muscles attached to it are rather poorly differentiated and not very strong. In addition, the shark is somewhat thicker than a crocodile and has neutral buoyancy, which means it needs more space and more physical effort to turn.

Therefore, the crocodile will turn and turn more quickly, making sharper zigzag movements than a shark, which, in turn, has only the ability to swim away from the crocodile due to its high speed. The powerful neck and strong tail of the combed crocodile will allow him to physically control his opponent if he grabs him with his jaws. In general, the white shark is noticeably inferior to the combed crocodile in terms of physical strength, agility and endurance.

3) Senses:

The shark's lateral line allows objects to be detected at a very long distance. The same function is performed by the sensitive receptors located in the crocodile throughout the body. A shark has a good sense of smell, but crocodile receptors are also able to determine the chemical composition of water, i.e. also "smell".
It is worth noting that at close range the shark's developed sense organs can disorient its owner, while the crocodile's numerous receptors allow it to determine the exact distance to an approaching target.
A combed crocodile has a significantly more developed reaction than a shark. I think the following observation will be revealing:
"The crocodile is made a terrible enemy by its explosive power, monstrous jaws. The zoologist from Sri Lanka Deranyagala watched as an adult langur, a rather large monkey, who escaped from the cage, tried to jump over the pool, where a three-meter crocodile lay at the bottom. Immobile, sleepy reptile, jumping half out of it. water, grabbed the monkey in a jump! A squeal, one sip, and the monkey was gone. Five years in a cramped pool did not affect the crocodile's mobility in any way ... "
http://aquaria2.ru/node/8480 (by the way, quite a good article for the Russian-speaking Internet, mentioning facts that were revealed and analyzed in detail only some time later.)
Or, for example, this is a video where a crocodile reacted to a shark when it got very close: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJHW9ilhwLk (0:07).
Cott (1961) gives two examples of the phenomenal reaction rate of crocodiles: in one case, a young Nile crocodile caught a dragonfly flying over the water by its wing, and in the other, a larger crocodile grabbed a tiger fish jumping over the water right in the air.

4) Armament:

Earlier it was already painted that the jaws of a crocodile are more than three times more powerful than sharks. Even if we compare the bilateral force of a shark bite with the unilateral force of a crocodile bite (the bilateral force of a crocodile bite, in turn, should be 50% stronger). Moreover, the pressure at the tip of the jaws in crocodiles is 2/3 of the pressure at the base, and in sharks - 1/2. Those. in the latter, more force of compression of the jaws from the base to the tip of the jaws is lost, despite the shorter muzzles (see data from the previously mentioned works on the force of the bite). Most likely this is due to special muscles located on the crocodile's skull, absorbing shocks and loads, and effectively distributing the resulting pressure when the jaws are clenched.

But what kind of weapon is activated by the jaw muscles?
In the white shark, the teeth reach 5 cm in length, have a triangular shape and are unevenly serrated along the edges. They have no roots and fall out of relatively little effort, but at the same time they are quite numerous. The principle of operation of the jaws of a white shark is comparable to the work of a hand saw - shaking its head, the shark saws its prey with its teeth. This is a very energy-intensive tactic that loses some of the effort applied to it due to the resistance of the water, but it is quite effective in order to dismember a fish or young seal into several pieces suitable for swallowing, or inflict a bleeding wound on a larger marine mammal. More is not required from a white shark: as mentioned earlier, it is an opportunistic predator, in an adult state, feeding on carrion and small animals - mainly fish, and only from time to time (for example, when visiting pinniped rookeries), attacking marine mammals when they are young, sick or injured. A healthy sea lion is not that it is too large for a white shark (after all, the mass of an adult white shark usually exceeds the mass of adults of most species of eared seals by 4 or 5 times) as a prey - it is simply unable to keep up with it, while the seal walks freely and bites the shark's gills and tail.
Some sources often mention that sharks are supposedly capable of biting through the shells of sea turtles with their teeth. In fact, this is mainly attributed to tiger sharks, not white sharks, and nothing like this has ever been observed in practice with live turtles. The shells of dead turtles are soaked in water and decomposed, eventually making them available to sharks. Lemon and tiger sharks, feeding on the fresh carcass of a turtle, are able to bite off only the flippers, head and tail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3mkTgzWKCQ However, due to the wide mouth of the mouth, the white shark can simply swallow whole a decent-sized turtle with a carapace length of at least 60 cm.

The combed crocodile's teeth are thick, strong and rounded in cross-section. They have several small, but very sharp edges that help the tooth to penetrate the skin, meat and even bones of large animals. The largest tooth in the crocodile's mouth is usually the fourth tooth from the lower jaw, reaching 9.5 cm in length in a 4.8 m specimen. It serves to effectively and quickly pierce the skin of the thickest-skinned victims for subsequent dismemberment.
In general, the teeth of crocodiles are adapted primarily to hold their captured prey. After all, otherwise, in most cases, the victim would simply get out of the water with torn pieces of meat. But this is not a design flaw: the teeth of the crocodile's upper and lower jaws are aligned with each other in such a way that the smallest teeth of the other are located opposite the largest teeth of one jaw, forming a kind of "scissor-like" bite in the middle of the jaws, allowing the crocodile to bite off a large a piece of meat from the victim. Lateral jerks to the sides are also used, as well as the most effective technique - "deadly rotation", with the help of which the crocodile literally unscrews what it cannot bite off.
In the tea marshes of Australia, some saltwater crocodiles are known to specialize in feeding on Asian water buffaloes, overpowering these large and strong animals in shallow water.
The following observation by Alfred Brehm about a relative of the combed crocodile, the Nile crocodile, will be very indicative:
“He hunts even large mammals: he pulls donkeys, horses, bulls and camels to the depths of the river. On two main branches of the Nile, shepherds annually lose many animals from their herds. We saw a bull lying on the bank without a head at the Blue Nile. crying, told us that a few minutes before that he was seized by "the son, grandson and great-grandson of the monster cursed by Allah" and bit off his head with his teeth, I still cannot explain to myself, despite the strong arms of the mouth, such a powerful manifestation of strength. That he overcomes the camel, I was later convinced.
During my stay in Khartoum, a crocodile bit off its leg with a camel that went to drink at the White Nile, and when I went to the river, I saw that the shepherds in Eastern Sudan were taking precautions when drinking their camels. They drive herds into the river with a loud cry, and all the animals at once, in order to drive the crocodile away with noise and bustle. Smaller animals, cows, horses, donkeys, sheep and goats are never drunk directly from the river, in which crocodiles are found, but always from pools and ponds specially dug on the shore. Shepherds must fill these reservoirs with water, or they fence off a section in the river itself with a thick thorny wattle fence in order to form a watering hole safe from terrible predators. "

Shark teeth and jaws are designed to eat small and soft-bodied animals. Relatively large animals are a rare item in the diet of a white shark, which comes to her for lunch mainly in a weakened or dead state. At the same time, the teeth and jaws of the combed crocodile are a tool for holding and killing resisting large prey. The second design will definitely be more deadly and incomparably priority in combat with a commensurate enemy.

5) Other features:

The great white shark rarely attacks relatively large marine mammals if they are healthy and able to resist. However, sometimes this kind of predation takes place if animals for one reason or another (for example, swimming in troubled water) lose their vigilance and do not detect a shark. At the maximum, sharks killed animals (medium-sized elephant seals) weighing roughly half the size of the shark itself.
As a rule, a shark injures a large victim's limbs, thereby depriving him of a decisive advantage in agility and does not allow him to leave. Further, the victim is exhausted by attacks, the interval between which can be a very decent amount of time, and as a result drowns or dies from blood loss.
Curiously, it is crocodiles that are very resistant to blood loss: their perfect circulatory system quickly blocks blood access to the damaged areas. And the appearance of the crocodile somewhat disorientates the shark - it will hardly know where it is better to strike.
The crocodile's back is covered with a kind of "armor" - osteoderms that serve for rapid heating of the body, which are unlikely to succumb to shark teeth. In general, the combed crocodile has no weak points in front of the great white shark: even its seemingly vulnerable belly compared to the armored back is in fact protected by powerful muscles and abdominal ribs. Well, of course, it hides behind trouble-free reflexes.

On the contrary, if a combed crocodile grabs a white shark, it will simply pass and cut its vulnerable body with its jaws.

The combed crocodile is a born fighter. As already mentioned, interspecies fights of crocodiles, ending with the death of one of the rivals, are not something out of the ordinary. White sharks do not fight each other at all, if they are approximately equal in size, determining the dominant side in size. In addition to aggression and cockiness, combed crocodiles also demonstrate rare vitality, surviving with bitten off limbs, tails and pieces of jaws, and then even defending their territory being "disabled", despite the highest intraspecific competition.

A frankly funny consideration used when comparing these animals:

"The crocodile does not have enough air, it will float to the surface, and the shark will deliver the final blow, the only chance for the reptile is to end the battle quickly, but such a large prey will not be quickly killed," says the statement borrowed from "animal battles". But in an active state, crocodiles are able to stay under water for about 30 minutes! And no one forces a crocodile to swim after a shark, and especially dive to a depth behind it (and if this happens, it will easily float upward, changing the center of gravity and without losing attention), it will rather simply "hover" at the surface and will catch a shark with your jaws when it approaches. Of course, in reality, if the combed crocodile does not succeed in grabbing a white shark that has swam up to it right away, then the shark, after a sharp throw in its direction, will simply be afraid to swim away, while the crocodiles will not be able to catch up with it, and it is unlikely that it will even try to do so. do. But we are considering a slightly different scenario, right?

Having dealt with the abilities and combat skills of the opponents that they can use in the fight, we can imagine what they can do to each other. This is a purely hypothetical part that does not in any way affect the analysis of the natural behavior of animals when they meet.

Imagine a scene: a salted crocodile is swimming, and a white shark is meeting it. And, as silly as it sounds, both animals are burdened with the goal of killing each other at any cost.

What can a crocodile do to a shark? The combination of its powerful jaws, designed to capture large prey, with strong teeth, is truly a formidable weapon. Gripping the tail, pharynx, lower head or lower jaw will inappropriately result in the death of the shark. A crocodile can rip off a shark's fins, lower jaw, twist or pull a piece of meat out of it (and thereby, say, rip open the belly), break its tail, or even crush its head. In fact, in theory, a crocodile can even just grip the shark with its jaws, change its center of gravity (thereby constantly floating up to the surface like a float) and keep it near the surface until it is exhausted and drowned.

On the contrary, in order to kill a crocodile, a shark will have to flap a tenacious reptile with its teeth for a long time: it will have problems with the skin and especially the crocodile bones covering the internal organs. The usual tactic of a shark against dangerous prey - to bite and hide, is useless due to the crocodile's great resistance to blood loss.
Even if the shark has a chance of a surprise attack, it is unlikely to work due to the sensitive receptors covering the crocodile's body. Moreover, the white shark closes its eyes to protect them, and at the time of the attack it becomes completely blind. A combed crocodile at this moment can simply intercept the shark, grabbing it right by the face and tearing it apart. In the event of a shark miss, the crocodile can suddenly start and grab it, preventing the fish from escaping after an unsuccessful attack. But the shark's speed should help it get away from the reptile and, purely hypothetically, try to attack again. Even when attacking a crocodile at right angles from below or from above, the shark will not be able to avoid retaliatory bites due to the flexibility of its opponent.

Without making premature conclusions, let us turn to the most important part of the analysis - the practice, known to us for the encounters of sharks and crocodiles:

1) The case of the murder of a 5.5-meter white shark by a 6-meter combed crocodile described by Gerald Wood. The crocodile turned the shark on its back and literally tore off its head. Australian fishermen claimed that on other occasions they observed saltwater crocodiles killed other white sharks of the same size.
Gerald Wood, 1982. The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats.

2) Mentioned "Megalania" entered the ocean and killed the white shark that attacked it. Most likely, it is a crested crocodile, and "megalania" is a story of the aborigines, adjusted to a cryptozoological sensation.
"Author and journalist Peter Hancock is an expert on the Aboriginal legends of Megalania Prisca. He relates one story of a Megalania that wandered into the ocean. The Megalania is attacked by a great white shark. The Megalania kills the shark and drags it to shore . Hancock notes that it is strange that these stories and paintings are so fresh with Aborigines tens of thousands of years after Megalania Prisca supposedly went extinct. "
Real Dragons: the Search for Megalania Prisca The MonsterQuest Search for Megalania Prisca and Giant Komodo Dragons.

3) The book "Fangs of the Sea" by Norman W. Caldwell and Norman Ellison describes the easy killing of a 408 kg bull shark by a hungry salted crocodile:
"They fought for front rank as they crept over the mud and waited. Foot by foot the crocodile worked its way backwards. How it managed to drag approximately nine hundred pounds" weight of shark through the soft oozy mud I cannot tell. But it did. I saw the last gasping struggle made by the whaler as it was hauled from the water; heard the last snapping of jaws. Then silence. The crocodile had won the unequal struggle. But its grip on the tail did not relax until the body of the captive had stiffened. There had been a foul, a complete ugliness about the fight, if such it could be called. And now, spoils to the victor! Spoils then and there going down his great gullet. I have been told that a crocodile buries its food before eating it. This one did not. It ate and ate and ate. At daybreak, I sculled to the scene. The remains of the shark had been buried in the thick evil-smelling mud. It had been a very hungry crocodile - from the tail well up forward of the dorsal fin had been eaten. "

4) The Nile crocodile kills a blunt-nosed (bull) shark commensurate with itself in the river mouth.
Text from quora.com:
"The following observation, which also reported by Pooley (pers. Comm.), Describes a successful attack by adult (~ 370 cm TL, originally reported as" young ") Crocodylus niloticus on large (~ 300 cm TL) Carcharhinus leucas. This incident also casually mentions Cott (1961) as “fight between a crocodile and a shark was once witnessed in mouth of the estuary”. "
By the way, predation of bull sharks is the norm for any large crocodile species. See for example Robert Reid (2011) "Shark !: Killer Tales from the Dangerous Depths", Pergamon Press (1981) "Surveys of Tidal River Systems in the Northern Territory of Australia and Their Crocodile Populations", and Possibly Shark Eating by Crocodiles can strongly influence the distribution of bull sharks in river systems: The predation of Nile crocodiles in relation to sand sharks has also been recorded.
Renzo Perissinotto, Derek D. Stretch, Ricky H. Taylor. Ecology and Conservation of Estuarine Ecosystems: Lake St Lucia as a Global Model.
In general, unidentified remains of rather large sharks are found relatively regularly in the stomachs of crocodiles.
Malcolm Penny, 1991, Alligators and Crocodiles.
The IUCN Amphibia-reptilia Red Data Book, Part 1. IUCN, 1982.
Shark-Croc Showdown (Shark Week 2017) describes the presence of crocodile teeth marks on the bodies of 10% of the surveyed river sharks and rays, according to a team of shark researchers from Discovery and Adam Britton. Britton also described the discovery of the remains of tiger sharks in the stomachs of crocodiles (quote from "animal battles", 37 minutes: "We found crocodiles with sharks in their bellies. Crocodiles have been proven to defeat sharks." which he assumes that the salted crocodile can cope with the white shark.
Crocodiles, at least the ridged ones, generally freely hunt sharks commensurate with themselves:
"... and are sometimes known to attack and kills sharks of close to their own size".
Karleskint, G., Turner, R., & Small, J. (2012). Introduction to marine biology. Cengage Learning.
Blue Carbon Reservoir of the Blue Planet, Abhijit Mitra, Sufia Zaman, 2014.
And even young crocodiles, about 1.2 m long, attack sharks:
5) A combed crocodile was seen eating a tiger shark on the beach.
Croc Spotted Devouring a Tiger Shark by NQ Fishing Show, Townsville, North Queensland.
Original text:
"A CLASH of the titans has taken place off a Townsville beach, with a crocodile spotted devouring a tiger shark.
The bizarre spectacle is just one of two croc sightings at the Northern Beaches within the past month.
They come as rangers prepare to launch the Newman Government "s new crocodile management plan in coming months.
Department of Environment and Heritage Protection wildlife manager Mike Devery said the department received indirect reports of a crocodile eating a tiger shark at Toolakea Beach, 30km north of Townsville, in the early hours of March 13.
"A subsequent report ... advised the witness had returned to the site and the crocodile and shark carcass were gone."
The department also received a report of a 2m long crocodile in a remote area of ​​Bluewater Creek, the second report of a croc in the creek since January.
"The animal was on the bank but slid into the water and submerged as the witness approached," Mr Devery said.
"It was not seen again."
James Cook University shark expert Dr Colin Simpfendorfer believed the tiger shark may have been dead before the crocodile decided to feast upon it.
"I don" t think it "s something that you would normally see happen, just as a straight predation event," Dr Simpfendorfer said.
"It" s more likely that the shark was either sick or dead for that to have occurred, and it was more than likely a scavenging event, rather than a predation event. "
He said it would be difficult for a saltwater crocodile to attack and kill a tiger shark at sea, unless it was a small shark.
"I would guess they would probably flee each other quite rapidly, because they don" t want to interact, "he said.
"Most animals, when they get into a situation, unless they know they have dominance, they would try and escape.
"They both live in habitats that aren" t very similar, and tiger sharks rarely come close to shore. "
Toolakea Beach resident Bodhi Ashley-Doran, 15, said he frequently spotted sharks and crocodiles off the beach, but never attacking each other.
He said a 4m crocodile had been spotted regularly on the beach earlier this year.
"There" s always been crocs in the creek, "he said." I did see a shark off the beach, once eating a turtle in early March. "
He said locals knew about the crocodile in Bluewater Creek, which had been seen in a freshwater area near the bridge. "
Dr. Colin Simpfendorfer messed up the bill with his statements. =) But it is known that saltwater crocodiles displace tiger sharks from coastal waters. Crocodiles off Cape York Peninsula in Australia, which juts out towards Papua New Guinea, even have a cautionary saying among divers and sailors: "Don't worry about tiger sharks, saltwater crocodiles have already eaten them." -
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/372532200402254680/
So, and they should be able to kill tiger sharks. Yellow Water personnel in Australia found a 4.6m tiger shark killed and eaten by a combed crocodile:
"This was the remains of a 15 foot (4.6 m) Tiger shark; it seems that it had provided breakfast for one rather hungry saltwater crocodile! But it was too much even for that bad boy! The staff at Yellow Waters had never known a crocodile attack a shark before ... "
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1125968627415703/
River estuaries, including Australian estuaries, as in the photo with a killed shark, are quite typical habitat for tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier): But obviously, only if there are no crocodiles.

6) Fearful reaction of sharks to the smell of chemical secretions from crocodiles. In this case, C. acutus is an American sharp-nosed crocodile, reaching a very modest size in the coastal zone (up to a maximum of 4-5 m, usually less than 3 m) and lemon sharks, growing up to at least 3.5 m.
Joseph A. Sisneros, c & Donald R. Nelson. "Surfactants as chemical shark repellents: past, present, and future".
"Perhaps the most encouraging area of ​​shark repellency research is in the study of semiochemistry. This area of ​​research was first proposed by Rasmussen & Schmidt (1992) who suggested that sharks may be chemically aware of the presence of potential danger by sensing the bodily secretions from potential predators. Semiochemicals found in the bodily secretions of predators may convey survival information to a shark and elicit rapid flight from an area that is potentially dangerous. Rasmussen & Schmidt (op.cit.) hypothesized that lemon sharks, especially juveniles, inherently recognize chemical exudates produced by the American crocodile, Crocodylus acutus, a known predator of sharks. "
A similar reaction to the smell of sharp-nosed crocodiles was observed in blunt-nosed sharks. This is the theme of the shark of the week 2016 movie from Discovery, called "Sharks of the Jungle" in Russian. An example was given when a large number of adult sharks, gnawing at the bait, reacted violently to a repellent with the smell of a sharp-snout crocodile (moreover, rather modest in size) and left the feeding area, returning only when the smell had dissipated.
The fearful reaction of reef sharks to the approach of a juvenile salted crocodile, as well as how an adult salted crocodile chased off the proportionate lemon sharks (considered, by the way, one of the most aggressive sharks), were demonstrated in the Shark-Croc Showdown Shark of the Week 2017.

7) In an 1819 book by George Dawson Flinter, titled "A History of the Revolution of Caracas", a 2.4m long crocodile attacked a huge, most likely white, shark.
Text translation:
“I witnessed, in Puerto Cabello, in the 1817s, the most stubborn battle between shark and alligator: the shark was very large, the alligator was not more than eight feet in length. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the beach to see such an incredible scene The alligator fought more furiously, hitting its antagonist with its tail, which caused the shark to turn belly up, but still tried to grab the alligator with its teeth. shots, and we finally succeeded in killing the alligator, which the commander of this place politely presented to me: they prepared it for me and I brought it with me to Cadiz, where I gave it to a gentleman who had a small office with curious things, and after that, he felt very satisfied, having placed the stuffed alligator among them due to the special situation in which it was taken. This reptile was taken in sea water, near ma ngrove trees, which disproves, however, contrary to the opinion of many, the fact that alligators can only be found in fresh water. I saw some of them in the same place; and the commandant had two live little alligators, about eighteen inches long, in a bathtub of water. There is another popular belief that I believe it has been empirically discovered that their skins cannot be pierced by a musket bullet; but, I believe that it depends on the bullet, even more on the distance and quality of the powder, and not on some invulnerability of their skin. Alligators, as I said, are very numerous on the banks of the Tui River, and in all rivers adjacent to the plains, where they eat large quantities of livestock. "
All neotropical crocodiles were previously called "alligators". This is for reference.

8) A fight of ~ 2.1 m shark (most likely a blunt-nosed one) with ~ 3 m ridge crocodile in the Adelaide River is described in detail. That is, the animals were of approximately equal weight. The crocodile threw the shark into the air with a wave of its tail, demonstrating its remarkable strength, and then tore it to shreds:
"Darwin, North Australia, Feb. 28. -A shark fought a crocodile on Adelaide River near here and lost. First honors went to the crocodile which, with a sweep of its tail, sent the shark into the air. The crocodile then divide . A fierce struggle followed, beating the muddy water Into foam. Then the battle ceased suddenly. The blood-stained shark appeared on the surface, and was slowly dragged down. The crocodile is estimated to have been 10 feet long and the shark 7 feet , by the shooting party from Darwin who saw the battle. "
The Sunday Morning Star - Feb 27, 1938.

These are far from all known cases of crocodile reprisals against more or less large sharks, but they are completely enough to understand the essence of the interaction of these animals. There is no point in mentioning the countless massacres of crocodiles over small sharks. They get them for lunch just as by chance, like any other large fish.

There is very little normal evidence of the killing of crocodiles by sharks (we can say that there is none at all), but we will still mention a few of the most interesting descriptions:

1) The head of a 3.5-meter Nile crocodile found by a married couple on the beach is unconditionally attributed in the media to "the activity of a 6-meter white shark." In fact, the cause of death of this crocodile is unknown and no authorities have carried out any examinations of the remains. In addition to the couple who discovered her, shocked by the idea of ​​a "6-meter shark", other observers put forward the option of cutting off the head by poachers, a consequence of an attack by a hippo or other crocodile. Many of them seem much more logical and intelligible.
Most likely it was generally a propeller of a large ship, everything is well described here: http://sandcroc2014.livejournal.com/1024.html

2) In Durban (South Africa), a large (4.3 m) tiger shark was once caught with the remains of the head and forelimbs of a (Nile?) Crocodile in the stomach, the size of the remains of which is not specified. From this came the rarely mentioned, but existing myth that, they say, "the remains of crocodiles are found in the stomachs of tiger sharks": in fact, you need to be able to distinguish between an exception (a single find) and a rule. Moreover, experts consider this case of eating carrion, as the shark ate the least edible parts. In general, in the stomachs of tiger sharks, the remains of land or river animals are regularly found, washed into the sea when they were already dead.

3) Exceptional attacks of white sharks on sharp-nosed crocodiles have been reported from Fuerte.
The size and age of the animals, as well as the circumstances and outcome of the attacks are not specified - everything is described from the words of local residents.
Medem, F. 1981. Los crocodylia de Sur America, Volume 1, Los Crocodylia de Colombia. Colciencias, Colombia.
However, as you know, the sharp-nosed crocodiles living on the islands do not reach large sizes. And in coastal habitats in general. For example, the average weight of adults in the coastal area of ​​Belize was estimated to be only 77.8 kg. Perhaps a shark could handle such a small crocodile.
Platt, S. G., T. R. Rainwater, J. B. Thorbjarnarson & D. Martin 2011. Size estimation, morphometrics, sex ratio, sexual size dimorphism, and biomass of Crocodylus acutus in the coastal zone of Belize.

In general, both theoretical and practical considerations speak of the unequivocal victory of the combed crocodile over the white shark in a hypothetical battle.
The great white shark has no chance of killing the salted crocodile with its jaws, which are ineffective against large and even more protected and resistant to blood loss of animals, while the crocodile can easily tear the shark to pieces.
In fact, these animals are from, shall we say, completely different "fighting leagues". You can compare this observation:
“In the Philippines, in 1831, a giant saltwater crocodile, one of the most dangerous reptile species, ate at least one shepherd (and one horse). feet behind its front legs and had a head that was 5 feet 6 inches long from nose to first vertebra.
This was a formidable adversary. The French plantation owner saw him attack a horse and rider crossing the river where he lived. They escaped when the crocodile's jaws slammed shut on the saddle and ripped it off the horse's back. The rider, the shepherd, drew his sword and waited for the animal in the shallow water, despite advice to the contrary. Ignoring the courageous blows with the sword, Mugger grabbed his leg and dragged him away.
Two months later, the crocodile attacked again, killing the horse, which was the last straw. The plantation owner, a visiting American hunter, and the locals decided that was enough. Using harpoons, nets, ropes and firearms, they attacked. But the crocodile held them for six hours before he was finally killed. It is reported that only 40 people were able to pull him ashore.
The plantation owner presented an American guest, George Russell, with Mugger's skull. Russell donated it to the Boston Museum of Natural History, which donated the skull to Harvard. "
With this:
“One Australian angler, Elf Dean, broke the world record by spinning four of the largest sharks ever caught with this tackle. All four are great white sharks, each weighing over a ton.
Dean, a jovial, tough man, grows grapes - when he's not shark fishing, of course. He caught his first shark in 1939. She weighed three hundred and ninety kilograms. As the years passed, Dean's skill grew, and so did the weight of the sharks he caught. He hunted, as a rule, in the Great Australian Bay, on the southern coast of the continent. Numerous schools of fish enter the bay and prowl, challenging each other's prey, many sharks, including the largest of those found in the seas and oceans of the globe.
McCormick. Shadows in the Sea: The First Sea Devil Caught in Australia In 1951, Sir Willoughby Norrie, Governor of South Australia, caught a great white shark weighing 1009 kilograms - the largest shark ever caught on a spinning rod at the time. Dean was determined to break Norrie's record. And in 1952 he did it.
Dean's meeting with his first record shark came at two in the morning, when, after a day in vain searching for a shark big enough to suit his tastes, he dropped anchor and went to bed. He was awakened by blows to the bottom of the boat. He jumped off the bunk, went out onto the deck, and the beam of his flashlight illuminated the dorsal and caudal fins of the largest shark he had ever seen. The shark violently "butted" the boat, intoxicated by the smell of whale oil dripping from the reservoir at the stern: with the help of whale oil and seal blood, a bucket of which he occasionally poured into the water, Dean left a trail behind his boat, unusually attractive for sharks. Sharks smelled him for many kilometers and followed his boat, trying to grab the food that this delicious smell promised them.
All night long, a huge shark beat with a noise against the stern of Dean's boat. The smell of food drove her to a frenzy. Once she even grabbed the propeller with her teeth, so that the boat started shaking: it seemed that the shark wants to wake up the sleeping people in order to receive the breakfast promised to her. At dawn, Dean threw over the side of the forest, and the shark immediately grabbed the bait and rushed forward. She beat her tail and twirled around her axis. Once she jumped out of the water entirely. If she went to the depths, she would be saved, and so she soon got tired. It was all over in forty-five minutes. The shark - it belonged to the great white species - weighed 1058 kilograms and was four meters long. Alf Dean has broken the world record. And less than a year later, he broke his own record by catching a great white shark weighing 1,076 kilograms.
On April 10, 1955, Dean caught a shark weighing seven hundred kilograms, tied it to the side of the boat and went further in search of something more interesting. Suddenly, another shark of huge size rushed to his prey, not paying attention to Dean, who beat her on the head with the handle of a spear, she continued to tear off huge pieces from the body of a dead shark. Finally, Dean's partner dropped the baited hook. The shark rushed at her, but somehow managed to catch the hook with its tail. Dean tried to get the shark out, but it was impossible. Then he cut through the woods. The baited hooks were thrown again, and this time the shark swallowed the hook. Dean fought the shark for half an hour, but the shark got off the hook and left.
During this time, the boat was carried almost a kilometer from the place where they met the shark. Dean decided to head back and drop anchor. As soon as they anchored, the same shark emerged from the water again - a piece of forest still dangling on its tail. Dean decided to try his luck again, and this time, after an hour and a half of fighting, he managed to take the stubborn shark. She weighed 1141 kilograms. Dean broke his own record for the third time.
The fourth time he broke the world record in 1959, when he caught a shark weighing 1199 kilograms. But his biggest fish, as is the case with all anglers, left him.
In Australia, this shark was nicknamed the Inaccessible Lil, because she is a female person and has broken the hearts of more than one sports angler. Dean met her one moonlit night, where he always hunted, in the Australian Gulf. She hit the boat with her snout and tore from the stern a seal carcass, which Dean often hung overboard so that the piquant smell attracted sharks. While she was massacring the seal a few feet from the boat, Dean managed to make out her. He was salivating. The shark was six meters long and about two tons in weight.
He lowered fresh bait overboard - another seal. Near her, he threw the forest with his favorite bait - a seal liver, set on two large hooks. The impregnable Lil rushed to the attack on the hooks, bait, bait - whatever was there. Through the spray raised by her desperate leap, Dean saw that she had swallowed the bait. He used the reel to force the hooks into his mouth. Again and again she tried to get off the hook, soaring from deep to the surface, so that her huge, graceful body was completely shown out of the water. Then she went to a depth - 2000 kilograms of concentrated rage against Dean's hands trembling from unbearable tension and the forest, stretched like a bowstring. She fought for two hours without a break. Then slowly, centimeter by centimeter, turn by turn, he began to wind up the woods.
He led Leal to the side of the boat. His henchman leaned over the side and grabbed the wire leash attached to the end of the scaffold, clad in canvas mittens, with his hands. But Inaccessible Lil did not even think about admitting herself defeated. She gathered her strength and again threw herself into the depths.
Dean's hands were a bloody mess. Bubbles swelled and burst on the palms, fingers, cut to the bone by the incessantly twitching fishing rod, were numb with pain. My legs cramped. The muscles in my back almost burst from the strain. And the battle continued. The third hour ... the fourth hour ... Three times Dean brought the shark to the boat, three times a sparkling leash emerged from the water and three times Inaccessible Lil rushed into the open sea with renewed vigor.
... It was the sixth hour of the battle, and Dean felt that his strength was running out. But the trembling of the forest, or rather, his own intuition told him that Leal was beginning to get tired. And again, clenching his teeth in pain, he began to wind up the forest. He led the shark to the side, and his assistant began to select the leash. Already three meters of the ten-meter leash were in the boat when Inaccessible Lil made one last attempt to free herself. She dived and sank like a rock. The forest burst from a sharp jerk - the indomitable Lil was free.
Several fishermen-athletes saw and chased the Inaccessible Lil before Dean met her, others tried to catch her after that, but they have not been able to do this to this day. "
40 people with rifles and harpoons are needed to kill a really large male combed crocodile (5.5-6.5 meters, but not 8-9 meters, judging by the size of the skull, see the document on the size of crocodiles) in a 6-hour struggle. The white shark, twice as large in weight, is ALMOST overcome by a lone fisherman armed with a spinning rod. And sharks comparable in weight to this crocodile can be harvested in less than an hour ... They are simply incomparable in power! But "Magger" from the Philippines is far from the largest and strongest salted crocodile.

Probably, this alignment is associated with the behavior and lifestyle of animals: salted crocodiles, as predators with a much higher level of aggression, often fighting with relatives and attacking large prey, are much better suited to conflicts and fights than white sharks, which try to avoid fights with others predators and feed mainly on small or readily available animals. Crocodiles are much fiercer, reckless, stronger, more tenacious and more powerful than any kind of shark.

Currently, salted crocodiles are found mainly with tiger and blunt-nosed sharks, as well as smaller river, coastal or reef species, while modern populations of white sharks are less and less likely to enter warm waters of little use for them. However, these opponents are generally similar to white sharks in their abilities in similar size ratios, and all also fall prey to crocodiles from time to time.

A question like this may seem strange, since both species of animals did intersect with each other on the Malaysian islands and the northern Australian coast. About who is stronger, it is worth talking about the example of a great white shark and a combed crocodile, which have repeatedly met each other in nature.

What a shark is capable of

Sharks do not defend their territory, offspring and even food source

In order to understand who is stronger, let's analyze the features and capabilities of the white shark. The record size of a white shark is 6 m in length, and the recorded weight is about 2 thousand kg. The average weight of a shark is about 1,000 kg with a length of about 4.5 m. Shark bite force can reach 1800 kg / cm 2.

A meeting with sharks ends in death annually for about 15 people.

Since sharks mainly feed on small fish and marine life, they are not used to large prey, which also resist, so the shark attacks relatively slowly and is unable to keep the resisting prey for a long time.

What a crocodile is capable of

Salted crocodiles exhibit high levels of intolerance and aggression when attempting to attack their territory.

The maximum recorded size of a combed crocodile is 6 m with a weight of about 1.5 thousand kg. Therefore, these parameters in animals are approximately the same. At the same time, the bite force of the crocodile, which was recorded, was more than 2000 kg / cm 2. So according to this indicator, the crocodile turned out to be much stronger.

About 2,500 people die from crocodiles every year.

Who is stronger

Superiority in combat experience, tactics and weaponry make the combed crocodile too difficult an opponent for the great white shark

It is almost impossible to fight off the predatory throw of the crocodile. He surpasses the shark in the following indicators:

• The attack is faster. Crocodiles are accustomed to large, resisting and fast-running prey, and their jaws have sufficient power and endurance to hold their prey for a long time.
• The reaction is much faster. Crocodiles have a viewing angle of 270 °, a powerful curving spine and sensitive receptors, all of which are poorly developed in a shark.
• Maneuverability is higher. The muscles of the crocodile are most adapted to water conditions, and the muscles of the shark are very primitive.
• The teeth are larger. They are up to 10 cm long, thicker and more powerful than the five-centimeter shark fangs.

The chance of surviving a shark attack on a person is estimated at 86%, a crocodile - only 32%.

When a salted crocodile and a white shark meet, the second will obviously not do well, since the crocodile is much stronger than it.

Let's try to reproduce a model of a battle between two predatory titans - a shark and a crocodile. For a long time, both of these creatures have inspired a person with horror and apprehension. And what does the relationship between them look like? Who has the best chance of winning in the event of a bloody fight?

It is clear that any modeling, especially with the help of imagination, does not quite objectively allow us to assess the capabilities of the sides of the battle. And even more so - it is impossible to draw unambiguous conclusions, considering an imaginary battle between fierce and strong opponents, when the outcome of the battle can be decided by chance. Therefore, let's not forget that the fight is virtual, and it would not be entirely fair to assert on the basis of its outcome that one of the opponents is undoubtedly stronger.
The basis for logical constructions will be the knowledge about these large predatory animals.

From the side of sharks, a great white shark will perform in a duel, since it is the largest of the aggressive predators, a recognized leader in terms of weapon power and danger. It must be assumed that the readers of the site already know enough about the great white shark. It is a large fish, reaching over 7 m in length and weighing over 3 tons. The officially registered size records of the great white shark are somewhat more modest, but it must be assumed that not all especially large specimens fall on the scales of researchers and scientists.
The main weapon of this predator is sharp teeth, the length of which reaches 5 cm.

Who from the representatives of the crocodile family can resist such an effective killing machine?

There is only one contender for this role - one that feels great in sea water and reaches a large size. For those who have not heard about this monster, brief information:

The combed crocodile is the largest member of the crocodile family in the reptile (reptile) class. It is believed that some of its individuals can reach 7 m in length and weigh more than a ton.
This toothy monster lives in the area of ​​the Malay Archipelago, from the southeastern regions of Asia to the north of Australia. It can be found both on coastal land areas and in the sea, since the salted crocodile is able to live in sea water and even travel between the islands. Thanks to the ability to navigate, according to experts, these predators were able to settle from the Indian subcontinent and Indochina to Australia.
Ridged crocodiles got their name for the presence of two large ridges on the head, stretching from the eyes to the middle of the head.
The crocodile's teeth and jaws are capable of instilling fear in any living creature. It is believed that the force with which a crocodile clenches its jaws can reach 2 tons! In the regions where this creepy monster lives, more people die from its teeth than from attacks of sharks.
The mobility of this predator is amazing - at the moment of attack, it is capable of developing lightning-fast lunges at a speed of more than 40 km / h! Residents of places where large crocodiles live, claim that a toothy monster is able to snatch a person out of a boat so quickly that the comrades nearby do not always have time to notice it.
As you can see, our heroine's opponent is quite worthy - strong, fast, with powerful jaws.

The remains of small sharks were often found in the stomachs of crocodiles, and the remains of crocodiles were found in the digestive tract of large sharks.

Let's try to estimate the chances of victory in an imaginary duel between a large white shark and an adult salted crocodile, especially since the encounters of these two predators in the sea are quite real.
The main advantages of a shark are high speed and maneuverability, a more massive body and the ability to stay under water for an infinitely long time, since it is a fish.

Crocodiles cannot remain without a breath of air for a long time - their circulatory system uses atmospheric oxygen to oxidize blood. And their main advantage over the shark is the armored skin of the back, which is difficult to bite even for a shark. But if the battle drags on, and it, of course, cannot be fleeting in the battle of giants, even a crocodile that has captured a shark's teeth will be forced to open its jaws and float to the surface. He will not be able to quickly kill a shark with his teeth - the prey is too large, moreover, it is extremely tenacious, so he will soon need a saving breath of air. Ascending to the surface, the reptile will expose its vulnerable belly to the shark's teeth, which will decide the outcome of the fight. Of course, with the same size, the crocodile will lose the fight.

Such fights between predators of equal size sometimes take place. There are also eyewitness accounts of such fights. In most cases, they followed this scenario.

The conclusion is unambiguous - the great white shark will not leave the salted crocodile a chance of survival. However, the same can be said about other large shark species - tiger, mako. If they are as large as a reptile, then advantages such as the ability to breathe underwater, combined with powerful teeth and maneuverability, decide the outcome of a bloody battle.

Of course, in a real fight between titans, success in a battle depends on many circumstances - surprise of an attack, a successful lunge or bite, etc. But in our virtual simulation we adhered to equal conditions for rivals - as for boxers before the signal of the gong

Saltwater crocodiles live in seas that great white sharks dislike. These predators prefer the cool waters of temperate latitudes, where sea pinnipeds are found in abundance. Therefore, fights are more likely between crocodiles and small tiger sharks, as well as with representatives of the families of gray and reef sharks. Such opponents are significantly inferior in strength to a large crocodile, therefore, they often become victims of adult reptiles.

We bring to your attention a video of the popular science channel Discovery, in which scientists and specialists simulated a fight between two aquatic titans - a combed crocodile and a great white shark. After watching it, you will be convinced that many points of this film do not contradict the analyzes, reflections and conclusions presented above. By the way, the author of the article about the fight between a crocodile and a shark did not watch this video before the publication of his article.