Whale Shark
· Whale Shark Habitat
· Whale Shark Food
· Whale Shark Behaviour
· Conservation Status
· Whale Shark Pictures
· Whale Shark facts

Whale Shark Food

Whale Shark food – Filter feeder

Although the whale shark do have an amount of teeth just as any other shark they do not fill any vital function when it comes to feeding. Instead the whale shark is one out of the three filter feeding sharks that exists. It works in a similar way as the when an ordinary whale feeds. The whale shark sucks in an amount of water into its mouth and then blows it out through its gills. Right before the gills is a sort of filter in which the food will get caught and when all water is passed on through the gills this food is swallowed, a very simple but yet elegant design.

Whale Shark food – Plankton

As most other filter feeders the whale shark food consists mainly out of plankton. Plankton exists in more or less every ocean across the globe and is therefore the obvious first choice when it comes to food. Although no other foodstuffs follow, for every time the whale shark filters water through the gills it will at least get a reasonable amount of plankton to chow down on.

Whale Shark food – Crustaceans

Crustaceans are also a very common source of food for the whale shark and it is for the same reason as the plankton, there are so much of them. With crustaceans one generally means small, shelled animals such as krill and shrimps. They are a good food source and are very common in waters relatively close to the shores. That is probably why the whale shark often can be seen in bays and close to beaches.