Thursday 28 October 2021
Attacks on people by mistake
Study: Sharks mistake surfers for seals
Shark attack is feared on many beaches. However, animals usually don’t chase after humans at all, as a study has now discovered. From a shark’s perspective, surfers paddling looks like the fins of their prey. Perhaps the reason is the physical impotence of the animals.
Sharks’ attacks on humans are very rare – and when such attacks do occur, it is usually a matter of confusion. A recently published scientific study confirms assumptions that sharks mistake swimmers or surfers for their usual food – such as seals – for their movements.
one of the british The scientific journal “Journal of the Royal Society Interface” published a published study Focus on the great white shark. This type of shark, which is especially afraid of humans, can perceive its sense of smell and sound waves at great distances, but its eyesight is poor. According to the study, the great white shark can only distinguish poorly between colors and shapes. Therefore, his eyesight is six times worse than that of humans. This means that the great white shark cannot distinguish between humans and theropods.
According to the study, the paddling and paddling movements of surfers and swimmers led him to conclude that they are seals that make similar movements with their flippers. According to the results of the researchers, the risk that the great white shark will mistake surfers as prey for animals is especially high.
The man looks like feet
For the study, video recordings of marine mammals were compared to the swimming and surfing of humans from the shark’s perspective – specifically from below. In his view, the great white shark is unable to “clear visual distinction between humans and theropods,” the authors wrote. It’s the first study to look at cases of misidentification “from the perspective of the great white,” said lead author Laura Ryan, a biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
Last year, fewer than 60 shark attacks on humans were counted worldwide. According to the study, these attacks fuel a “disproportionate” level of fear, as very little is known about the sharks’ behaviour.
