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(Image credit: Courtesy of Jonathan Marlowe)
A hammerhead shark just recently crashed down on Splinter City Disc Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. While waterspouts can pull fish from the sea and drop them over land, the offender was a more typical fish enemy: an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) that had actually lost its lunch.
The uncommon occasion occurred on May 18 near the 11th hole of the woody course near the ocean.
“It’s not uncommon to see an osprey carrying something, but you take note because it’s still really cool to see,” Jonathan Marlowe, who saw the hammerhead fall as he was playing disc golf, informed Garden & Gun publication “I thought it would be a random fish.”
Rather, it was a little, dead hammerhead shark, quickly recognizable by its large, mallet-shaped cranial structure called a cephalofoil.
Understood as “fish hawks,” ospreys are exceptional marine hunters and the only raptors with feet created to capture slippery victim. They tend to feed on fish less than 12 inches (30 centimeters) longand the hammerhead discovered on the golf course seems longer than a foot.
Related: Sharks: Facts about a few of the ocean’s leading predators
It’s most likely the osprey brought the fish a minimum of half a mile (800 meters) from the ocean before losing its grip. Marlowe stated 2 crows chased after the osprey into a tree, where it dropped the hammerhead onto the ground listed below. Crows and other smaller sized birds are understood to utilize a method called mobbing to secure their areas throughout reproducing season by collaborating to fend off predators.
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According to posts on the Myrtle Beach Disc Golf Facebook pagewildlife such as snakes, raccoonsand alligators prevail sights on regional courses. Seeing a shark in the woods may simply be an unbelievable experience.
Marlowe holding up the small hammerhead. (Image credit: Courtesy of Jonathan Marlowe )
“We couldn’t believe it and kept asking ourselves, ‘did that really just happen?'” Marlowe stated, who left the hammerhead behind in the hopes that the raptor may return and make a meal out of it.
Worldwide, there are 10 recognized types of hammerhead shark, and numerous occupy the Atlantic Ocean along the coast of the southern United States.
A study by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources that ranged from 2013 to 2016 spotted 3 types of hammerheads– bonnethead (Sphyrna tiburo)scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini)and terrific hammerhead (Sphyrna mokarran) — in seaside waters off South Carolina and Georgia. And in 2013, a brand-new, uncommon types was found in the exact same location. Called the Carolina hammerhead (Sphyrna gilbertthe fish look a lot like scalloped hammerheads however are genetically various. It is uncertain which of these types fell from the sky in Myrtle Beach.
Katie Neith is a freelance science author and editor based in Los Angeles, California. Her work has actually been included in Nautilus, Caltech Magazine, and Colgate Research, to name a few publications. Katie holds a master’s degree in science composing from Johns Hopkins and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from New York University.
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