Photographer captures the moment a crocodile swallows a shark

It is a moment he won't soon forget! Mark Ziembicki, a scientist-photographer, was in KwaZulu-Natal, a coastal province in the east of South Africa. He was busy photographing crocodiles on the riverbank, when his attention was drawn to a noise about 300 feet away. It was then that he was able to capture an impressive scene: a crocodile swallowing a shark.

While we were busy taking pictures of another crocodile on the shore, there was some commotion about 100 metres away,’ the scientist told the press. ‘A local who was also there shouted that a crocodile was eating a shark. We turned around to see the shark struggling in the crocodile's mouth. We had been watching both crocodiles and sharks in the area for several hours and wondered what would happen if the two would meet.

Crocodile vs shark

So in the crocodile vs shark battle, the former had the last laugh. But as Mark Ziembicki points out, it was an adult crocodile against a juvenile bull shark. The latter had no chance against the reptile, which has the most powerful jaws in the animal kingdom. However, the outcome of this encounter would probably not have been the same against an adult shark. Bull sharks can grow up to 10 feet long and are known to be one of the most aggressive and dangerous shark species in the world.

Mark Ziembicki says on his Instagram post:

What does happen when large sharks meet large crocodiles in the same place? More likely than not they probably avoid each other. Even such large predators at the top of the food chain are inherently wary and tend to avoid risking injury or death…

According to the scientist, the encounter, which ended in the death of the young shark, was caused by heavy rainfall. This led to an abundance of prey at the mouth of the river, attracting crocodiles. It is at these sites that young sharks live, waiting to return to the open sea as adults.

Above-average rainfall inland along the South African east coast this year has led to high volume river discharges and an abundance of food for these predators at the mouth of river estuaries as freshwater species are washed down river into saline coastal waters. It also appears to provide ideal nursery and pupping sites for bull sharks, with numerous young sharks sighted…

Watch the video above to see more incredile footage of a crocodile.