This sting ray comes up with a unique way to escape a shark.
Sharks are the ocean's greatest predators and if you're an ocean creature of any kind, odds are you might be on the dinner table if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sharks are opportunistic predators that won't hesitate to even cannibalize each other if the chance arises.
However, there are limits to the lengths they'll go to for a meal. In this footage shot on a beach in Australia, a tourist notices a wild chase going on just beneath the waves only feet from the beach.
It turns out there's a shark chasing around a stingray. The two fish are swimming in only a few inches of water with the shark closing fast. The stingray only has one option for escape, going up onto the beach!
We knew that sharks and stingrays regularly venture into the shallows. However, we did not ever expect to see these two creatures in a wild chase like this in only an inch or two of water. We also never knew stingrays could get back into the water on their own after intentionally beaching themselves. That was one clever stingray.
What you are witnessing with this video is a showdown between two prehistoric beasts. Both sharks and stingrays are living fossils that watched dinosaurs come and go from this world. The encounter you saw here has likely played out more than once in the world's oceans in that time period!
Unfortunately, the video cuts off after the stingray gets back into the water and we don't see how the chase ends. The shark is equally clever, swimming in circles just offshore, knowing that the stingray will have to return to the water or die. Talk about a terrible situation to be put into! This is nature's cruelty in action.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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