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Fox 13 News

Photo of Osprey Carrying Shark Carrying Fish Catches Fire on Social Media

A photograph of multiple predators engaging in a top-of-the-food-chain battle has garnered a lot of attention.

Photographer Doc Jon took a picture of an osprey flying overhead at Madeira Beach outside of Tampa, Florida, the other day. What made the photo extra cool was the osprey was carrying a small shark in its talons.

But when Jon enlarged the photo, what he saw surprised him even more and made the picture a hot commodity on social media. The shark, approximately a foot long, was carrying its own prey. It had a fish clamped firmly in its jaws.

An osprey carrying a shark carrying a fish. I can only imaging the osprey saying to the shark, "Who's your daddy now!?"

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"It was very far away so I couldn't see it through my viewer," Jon said, "But when I got home and zoomed in on the photo, I saw the catch was a shark!" 

Doc Jon's introduced the series of photographs on his Facebook page as "THE BEST PHOTO I HAVE EVER TAKEN!"

He goes on to say, "(by content not quality) I saw an osprey with a fish. When I looked on my computer I saw the fish's tail was that of a shark. Then, zooming and cleaning up the photo, noticed THE SHARK IS EATING A FISH! These are NOT photoshopped."

The pictures were shared almost 1,200 times and earned a good number of positive comments from Jon's Facebook friends. A local news station even picked up the photos and interviewed Jon.

"This is a one-in-a-trillion photograph," Jon said. 

We'd agree. How often do you see one of those circle of life illustrations with the arrows pointing from one predator to another, in real life, actually caught on film?

Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by David Smith at his Facebook page, Stumpjack Outdoors.

NEXT: COOPER'S HAWK ATTACKS AND KILLS DOVE AT BIRD FEEDER