This may be a controversial opinion, but the inside of a tiger shark's mouth looks kind of comfy (once you're past the teeth). This is just one observation we can make after stumbling across some fascinating footage from filmmaker and conservationist Zimy Da Kid showing the inner walls of a tiger shark's mouth.
The Switzerland-based cinematographer captured the clip during a recent shoot in the Maldives when a curious tiger shark gobbled up his 360-degree camera and chomped on it for a bit before spitting it out and swimming away. The resulting footage offers a unique look at the shark's teeth, throat and the inner walls of its gills.
"The shark was curious," Zimy Da Kid told The Independent. "He saw this shiny thing and he thought ‘let me taste it' and then he bit the camera."
The video has some folk questioning whether or not it's a good idea to share the water with a 'bitey' tiger shark, but this behaviour is not at all aggressive and is not an attempt by the predator to feed. Without limbs or hands to investigate foreign objects in their environment, sharks resort to using their mouths to gain a better understanding of their surroundings. The behaviour is usually surprisingly gentle and Zimy Da Kid's camera only suffered a few minor scratches from the ordeal.
The cinematographer is hopeful that his work will inspire people to protect the natural world. "My goal is to make people fall in love with sharks through beautiful images," he told The Independent. "I started filming sharks because sharks are disappearing at a very, very fast rate which is going to be very bad for the ocean. If sharks disappear then the whole ecosystem of the ocean is going to fall apart. If the ocean falls apart, then we will fall apart with it."
Top header image: Shutterstock
Sharks
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Sharks
