Crazy things happen in the wild. What happens when a group of beachgoers chance upon a dead shark? They probably didn't expect it either.
It was just another day on a beach in Cape Town, South Africa. A family was out on a stroll when they came across a dead shark near the shore. Most people don't bother with dead animals on the beach but it's a shark--a shark always warrants a closer look. Imagine their surprise when the dead shark's belly started moving.
When someone pointed out that the shark could be pregnant, a man came into action, pulling out a pocket knife. The man slices along the dead shark's belly, spilling guts onto the beach.
"That looks like organs. That doesn't look like any pregnancy stuff," said the man, gingerly searching through the mess for a shark pup.
After a few minutes though, a shark pup wriggles into view, surprising the beachgoers.
The man quickly gets back to work, freeing the first shark pup from its placenta before tossing it into the ocean.
He goes back to the dead shark, rummaging to check for other pups and discovers two. The second pup's not as lively as the others but was able to swim away once it got into the water while the third gave a good thrashing before the man could get a hold of it and escort it to the water.
Though the emergency C-section was not exactly carried out as it was supposed to, there should be no danger to the shark pups.
Shark pups are essentially ready to be on their own after being born, developing inside their mothers for up to two years. Once they come out, they already have a full set of teeth, which would explain some of the man's hesitation to handle the shark pups.
Sharks also have the tendency to eat their young after being born so shark pups always swim away from their mothers. This means being born without a mother should not have an effect on the development of the rescued and subsequently released shark pups.
Great white sharks are common in South Africa. Typically, great white shark pups are born in spring and summer, ranging in length between 3.6 and 5.4 feet. When they survive threats, great whites can reach ages of around 15 years old, living in coastal surface waters across all major oceans, particularly those in Australia and South Africa.
