Crocodile seen eating shark in remarkable images

‘We turned to see the shark thrashing away in the crocodile’s mouth’

The bizarre sight of a crocodile eating a shark has been caught on camera of the east coast of South Africa.

Mark Ziembicki, a research scientist and photographer who hails from North Queensland in Australia, captured the unusual scene whilst on a recent visit to the country’s east coast.

The 46-year-old described the once-in-a-lifetime experience saying that he had been “completely taken by surprise” when it occurred only 60 feet from where he was standing.

He explained: “While we were busy taking photos of another crocodile on the bank there was some commotion about one-hundred feet away.”

“A local resident of the area who was also there, shouted there was a croc eating a shark.

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“We turned to see the shark thrashing away in the crocodile’s mouth.

“It spent about ten minutes with the shark in its jaws, tossing it about.

“The shark gradually moved less until it was eventually swallowed whole headfirst.”

In one image, the Nile crocodile can be seen with its mouth closing in on the 100-pound Bull shark pup. In the next the shark is firmly between the reptile’s jaws, on the way to its unfortunate fate.

The unfortunate Bull shark pup was unable to escape (Mediadrumimages/Mark Ziembicki)

According to Mr Ziembicki, the unlikely meeting of the two apex predators was due to a combination of the recent opening of the St Lucia estuary and excessive rainfall inland which meant that freshwater species washed downriver into salty coastal waters.

He added: “We had our answer I guess, although obviously there was a size mis-match on this occasion.” Crocodiles have the most powerful bite of all animals, the Nile species’ bite is in fact eight times greater than that of a great white shark.

The National Geographic says that Nile crocodiles usually live off fish. However, it points out that a Nile crocodile “will attack almost anything unfortunate enough to cross its path, including zebras, small hippos, porcupines, birds, and other crocodiles.” 

It seems that the young shark was unfortunate enough to do so.