get it on them or detest them , drones permit us humans to find a lot of things we were never privy to previously , such as how animals interact when they are n’t distracted by our mien .
A most excellent example is the footage below , recorded late last year and share latterly byNational Geographic , showing two 3 - time - long ( 10 - infantry ) Panthera tigris shark and one 4 - meter - retentive ( 13 - foot ) brine crocodile munching side - by - side on a kyphosis whale carcass .
Incredibly , this is thought to be the first clip ever that a reptile has been record banquet on a whale .
The amazingly polite spectacle was spotted off the coast of Kimberly , in Western Australia , by the crew of a charter boat , who conveniently already had a drone onboard .
The leave video was posted to social media , and soon after , note by University of Miami shark biologist Austin Gallagher .
His analytic thinking of the crocodile - shark scavenging behavior was published online last month in theJournal of Ethology .
" The most interesting aspect of this observance was seeing the convergence in time and outer space between tiger shark and saltwater crocodile , two apex predators that rarely run across each other , " Gallaghertold NatGeo .
Both species are known to be opportunistic scavenger , andmassive whale carcase , containing tons of eatable flesh , are known to attract a panoptic chain of mountains ofhungry brute . Tiger sharks , basically thedumpster divers of the sea , have been documented nibbling on pretty much every edible thing that they encounter , plus many non - eatable objects they try out anyway . The species appears to prefer the deeper waters that border reefs in tropical and semitropical neighborhood , though they will make out closer to the shoring in hunt of food .
The crocs , on the other helping hand , typicallystick to the brackish watersof estuaries , lagoons , river deltas , and mangrove forest , though , true to their name , they are able-bodied to stand firm the full salinity of saltwater .
like to old sightingsof multiple person from multiple species feeding on a killing , Gallagher theorizes that the teemingness of available nutrient made the two top predators disinclined to campaign . After all , why spend unnecessary vim ?
Novelty away , the clip and its ensue match - reviewed journal article remind us that video support , regardless of who or what take it , can lead to valuable scientific insights that simply ca n’t be forgather with binoculars and a notebook .
From count penguins in massive colonies to stag on poacher to following elusive snow Panthera pardus , unmanned aircraft areincreasingly being put to workfor the study and conservation of wildlife .
