Whale Shark

Species

Macken Murphy

Nature, Social Sciences, Science

4.8 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2019

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Whale sharks are the biggest fish, in the biggest pond on earth. This animal can get to be nearly 50,000 pounds and over 40 feet long. That is the length of a school bus, and double the weight! On this episode, Macken tells you all the fun facts about whale sharks, and gives you the best available answers to some of the following questions, like:

Why the heck are whale sharks so dang big?

Has a whale shark ever killed a human?

Could a human fit in a whale sharks mouth?

Why do whale sharks have hundreds of sharp teeth?

Do whale sharks have any natural predators?

Why do whale sharks have spots?

Do whale sharks speak to one another?

Can whale sharks detect magnetic fields?

Why do whale sharks have the largest inner ears in nature?

Are whale sharks smart? Can they be tamed?

Why are herbivores often bigger than carnivores?

These are all extremely important questions, at it is vital that you get your answers to them. Have fun while you do so by listening to the show, and get a bad joke about tigers along the way.

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rVjJbqfvviv3TQqNkO-g_gfS2kkd7evge1uATf-omyA/edit?usp=sharing

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's something ironic about the biggest shark on earth being the least dangerous, or at least among the least dangerous.
0:08.6	Think about this. There's a species of shark out there today that can get to be over 40 feet long and close to 50,000 pounds.
0:19.2	Let me put that in perspective. That's a shark the size of a school bus.
0:24.9	Let me put that in better perspective, actually. That's a shark the length of a school bus that weighs almost twice as much as a school bus.
0:35.3	And they've never hurt anybody.
0:45.8	More people have been killed by anteaters than by this 47,000 pound shark.
0:55.2	More people have been killed by beavers than have been killed by the largest shark on earth.
0:57.5	I shouldn't be laughing.
1:01.0	I only laugh at the absurdity, not the reality.
1:02.5	Death is a tragic thing.
1:04.4	These were unusual cases.
1:06.8	I'll put them in my bibliography if they interest you.
1:13.4	I'm just bringing up these examples to remind you that there are enough humans and enough animals on earth that freak violent incidents are bound to occur. Today's animal could squash you
1:22.5	by accident. Imagine if they were to just flick you with their tail accidentally at that weight.
1:30.5	Yet, we can swim with them, apparently in complete safety, because the only things they want to eat are tiny.
1:39.6	Lucky us.
1:41.2	Today we are going to talk about the whale shark.
1:48.2	Rheinsidon typus. I'm Mackin,
1:59.5	This is Species. Welcome to the show. So everyone seems to really love the interviews, despite the difficulty of them. I'm considering making it a weekly thing or a bi-weekly thing.
2:04.6	If you want to do that with me, if you want to make that happen, I encourage you to donate, say, $1 a week.
2:09.6	Many of you make more than $1 in three or four minutes at work, so you could donate the same amount of money your boss pays you to take a trip to the bathroom during a meeting.
2:19.8	I get it. Nobody likes donating to creators who will give them free content anyway, but believe it or not,
	...

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