Sharks have a reputation for being dangerous and ruthless marine predators, and in many ways this is true. But out of more than 360 species of these fish, only four are known as real "cannibals".
Cannibal sharks
The championship in unprovoked attacks is held by four species - white shark, bull shark, tiger shark and long-winged shark.
The probability of a fatal encounter with a shark is extremely low - 1 in 3.7 million. In comparison, deaths from careless handling of pyrotechnics are ten times more likely.
The white shark, or karcharodon, is the leader in the number of recorded attacks. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH), since 1580, Carcharodon has committed 272 attacks on humans, of which 74 have ended in death. The white shark is one of the largest predatory fish - its average length is 4.5 meters. Preserved pictures of the head of a shark caught in 1987, the body length of which is 6.45 meters.
The bull shark, or blunt shark, shares the primacy with the karcharodon. There are only 92 official cases, 26 fatal cases. But experts believe that there are much more of them, since the bull shark lives off the coast of Africa and India, where attacks on people are not recorded. The bull shark, despite its relatively small size - 3.5 meters, is dangerous because it often rises upstream of the rivers. Shark has been found in the Zambezi, Ganges and many other African and Indian rivers. Not to be confused with the bull shark and the completely harmless Australian bull shark.
The tiger shark, or leopard shark, comes in third place. FLMNH has reported one hundred attacks since the 16th century, 29 of them fatal. The average body length is 5 m with a weight of 400 to 650 kg. The shark is found in almost all tropical and subtropical waters.
Man is not the shark's desired food. These predators prefer more fatty meat. All unprovoked attacks are the result of an error in determining the prey.
The four most dangerous fish are closed by the long-winged gray shark - a medium-sized predator, from 1.5 to 3 meters long, most of whose attacks have not been documented. There are only 10 of them in the FLMNH statistics. Long-winged sharks are not dangerous off the coast, but it is believed that they are capable of attacking explorers and shipwreck victims on the high seas.
Dangerous species
In addition to those mentioned, there are several other shark species that pose a danger to humans, although much less. These include hammerheads, mako sharks, dark-finned, Galapagos, silk, blue and lemon sharks.
All these species are large predators, and a meeting with them in their hunting grounds can end tragically, but this happens extremely rarely. For example, of the 17 reported cases of hammerhead attacks, according to the Philadelphia Museum of Natural History, none have resulted in death.
