the.com/tiger shark
the ocean's garbage disposal with stripes, eating anything dumb enough to float past
means A large, aggressive shark of warm seas, named for the dark vertical bars on its body, known for an indiscriminate appetite that includes fish, turtles, seabirds, and the occasional swallowed license plate.
from A plain English compound: "tiger" for the dark bars striping its flanks (boldest in the young, fading with age), plus "shark." The word "shark" itself is a puzzle — it surfaces in English in the 16th century, possibly borrowed from a Yucatec Maya word *xoc*, possibly tangled up with German *Schurke*, "villain." Either way, "tiger" simply lends the cat's coat and reputation: striped on the outside, hungry all the way through.
- stomach finds
- license plates, tires, even unexploded munitions
- baby cannibals
- siblings devour each other in the womb
- stripes fade
- vivid in youth, ghosted with age
- second deadliest
- only great whites bite humans more often
- night hunter
- prowls shallow reefs after dark, eyes glowing
galeocerdo cuvier — species found in tropical waters worldwide, responsible for ~4.3% of unprovoked shark attacks on humans