What will happen if a crocodile, a great white shark and a giant anaconda are placed in a huge pool? Who is stronger: a shark or a crocodile Who is stronger than a shark or a crocodile.

Perhaps, some of you have repeatedly wondered: who is stronger, a combed crocodile or a great white shark?

If on the distant islands in Malaysia, off the northern coast of Australia, or in any other places where these animals have historically crossed paths, the answer to this question has been precisely determined, then in our time this question is considered by many people to be more than ambiguous.

The crocodile has always personified power, strength and fearlessness among the ancient peoples. These reptiles were feared, respected, worshiped and brought gifts. So, the peoples of Africa have long had a saying: "If you raise your hand to a crocodile, then remember that there will be a fight that you cannot stand." In the Philippines, local tribes seriously believed that "a spell was cast on crocodiles and therefore no one could kill them," and in ancient China, the power of crocodiles was compared to a typhoon or other major natural disasters. However, because of the myths seeping in from everywhere, because of the feature films and "documentaries" and other baseless lies and PR that began in the 1950s, in our time, many people prefer sharks.

Before we try to analyze the real abilities and combat potential of the crocodile and shark, I will analyze some of the mistakes people make when analyzing this issue and mention many physical characteristics animals, often misinterpreted in this kind of analysis. Of course, the basis will be based on real facts known about these animals and recorded in reliable sources, and not subjective conjectures:

1) Big size difference?

In other words, in fact, the white shark is no larger than the saltwater crocodile. Exactly and vice versa. In Runet there is a lot of information about 8 ... 9 ... 12 meter sharks or crocodiles. But all this, of course, is nothing more than an exaggeration or old, unverifiable data.

The record size of a white shark, which does not raise any questions in terms of reliability, is 6.1 m, the estimated mass is about 1900 kg (or rather even about 2200 kg, if you use the formula derived from the regression from Timothy C. Tricas and John E. McCosker - This shark was caught in the waters of Prince Edward Island in 1988. Also in the Guinness Book of Records there is data on the capture of a shark of the same length, but with a monstrous body girth of 5.64 m. 3 meter boat.
On average, adult white sharks reach approximately 4.3-4.9 meters in length with a mass in the region of 680-1100 kg. The females are noticeably larger than the males. Sharks reach puberty already at almost their maximum individual length, and the growth rates that remain throughout their lives no longer allow them to reach significantly larger sizes.

According to the book "Crocodiles of Australia" by Grahame Webb and S. Charlie Manolis, the usual size of a fully grown male saltwater crocodile is 4.6-5.2 m, and a fully grown female is 3.1-3.4 m. this length can be estimated at approximately 450-680 kg. Crocodiles do not grow all their lives, but after reaching puberty, their active growth does not stop and continues for some time.
The largest combed crocodile, which Adam Britton considers reliable, was measured (or rather, not he himself was measured, but his dried skin and skull) in Papua New Guinea in 1983. Put together, the skin and skull of the crocodile were 6.2 meters long, although since this method of measurement underestimates the length of a living crocodile, in life this animal was 6.3 meters long, according to Adam Britton (http://crocodilian.com/cnhc /cbd-faq-q2.htm), or even 6.7 meters as suggested by Webb and Manolis in the book "Australian Crocodiles". The mass of this crocodile, respectively, could be approximately from 1.3 to 1.6 tons.
However, the record skull of a combed crocodile, originating from Cambodia and stored in the Paris Museum, indicates that the length of this animal during life was even greater than that of the previous specimen, and was about 6.84 m, and its weight was more than 1.6 tons. The length of 7 meters originally indicated for this specimen (with an estimated mass of about 1.8 tons) is also possible with this length of the skull, but has not been confirmed.

So, there is no monstrous discrepancy in size in favor of either side. Here, one should also take into account the fact that the shark, being a completely aquatic animal, has a body density approximately equal to the density of water, and thus it may well be heavier than a crocodile even with the same volume and linear dimensions.
Statements like "a crocodile with the same size will have more weight due to the bone skeleton" and other nonsense cited by such narrow-minded people as the author of an article from akully.ru, of course, should simply be ignored. The skeleton makes up a relatively small percentage of the total body weight in vertebrates: in humans, for example, it occupies only 16-18% of the total body weight, while the dried and defatted skeleton, i.e. devoid of water and organic matter (also included in the cartilage of sharks), it already weighs half as much.

2) Real bite force of both animals.

You can often find information about the supposedly powerful jaws of the great white shark. Like, even exceeding the strength of the jaws of crocodiles and making the white shark a "new champion"!

In fact, no normal white shark bite force measurements have been made to date. Unless, Brady Barr got a figure of 303 kg when measuring the bite force of ~ 500 kg of a shark attacking the bait.
A hypothetical calculation of the bite force of a white shark is in turn given by S. Wroe, DR Huber, M. Lowry, C. McHenry, K. Moreno, P. Clausen, TL Ferrara, E. Cunningham, MN Dean and AP Summers, "Three- dimensional computer analysis of white shark jaw mechanics: how hard can a great white bite?".
The maximum number obtained is 18216 N, i.e. ~1800 kg. However, a shark once caught in Cuba was mistakenly chosen as the record specimen, which actually turned out to be much smaller than it was reported: well, not 6.4 m in length and not 3324 kg in weight. Experts who estimated the size of this individual from the photo estimated it at only 5 meters. If you take a white shark by a third less weight - i.e. close to the record 2 tons, then the bite force estimated by this method will already be significantly lower - in the region of 13400 N or ~ 1340 kg. In principle, the data on bite force obtained by Vroe et al. for the white shark are consistent with real measurements of bite force in other shark species, and can be considered relatively reliable (probably, this is almost the only normally performed bite force calculation using 3D modeling from those that are known to me).

For the combed crocodile, Gregory M. Erickson, Paul M. Gignac, Scott J. Steppan, A. Kristopher Lappin, Kent A. Vliet, "Insights into the Ecology and Evolutionary Success of Crocodilians Revealed through Bite-Force and Tooth -Pressure Experimentation" for a 1308 kg individual, a bite force of approximately 3.5 tons (34424 N) is calculated. This number is much higher than the maximum bite force estimate of ~1800 kg for the non-existent 3324 kg shark. At the same time, a 4.49-meter combed crocodile, whose bite force was not calculated, but measured by Erickson et al. in practice, bit the sensor with a force of slightly more than 1600 kg. And the 5-5.5 m Nile crocodiles gave out as much as 2.2 tons, only slightly biting the force sensor that Brady Barr stuffed into his mouth! An even higher bite force value relative to the size of the animal was obtained by Adam Britton, who measured the bite force of a 4.5 meter combed crocodile from a crocodile farm - he received about 2 tons.

Curiously, if we compare the measurements from Erickson and the calculations from Vroe, then the Siamese crocodile weighing 87 kg and the white shark weighing 423 kg have the same bite force of 4577 N or 467 kg. But in these methods there is one thing: Vroe and co-authors calculated the bilateral shark bite, i.e. pressure on both sides of the jaws. While Erickson et al., Brady Barr and Adam Britton measured unilateral pressure from crocodile bites—i.e. on one side of the jaws. Usually, the bilateral bite force in animals is twice that of the one-sided one, but the jaw muscles (M. adductor groups) in crocodiles effectively distribute the loads, as a result of which the bilateral bite force becomes only 50% stronger than the one-sided one.

So, the force of jaw compression in crocodiles is undoubtedly and incomparably higher than that of sharks. Even if sharks are significantly larger than crocodiles in weight, their jaw muscles are not strong enough to generate this kind of load. Actually, in terms of the force of compression of the jaws, crocodiles are relative (i.e. per unit mass, here only some lizards, such as teiids, and "bull frogs", such as slingshots are comparable to them) and absolute (here they can be argued with, perhaps killer whales) are champions among all modern vertebrates. Neither a piranha nor a hyena clenches its jaws with such force as an adult crocodile (in the case of a piranha, of course, hypothetically) of the same weight.

3) Who is the more "fierce" predator?

Now I will write the same thing that the defenders of sharks are trying to convey to people:
From all species of sharks, on average, only about 9 people die per year according to world attack statistics conducted since 2000 (according to the GSAF project. Arithmetic mean of fatal attacks). You are much more likely to die when you meet a dog or even a cow than when attacked by a shark. Moreover, even if we talk about the percentage of mortality relative to the total number of attacks, then sharks (including if you are guided by separate statistics on white sharks) do not in the least surpass large and aggressive breeds of dogs.

What about crocodiles? Crocodiles in the total mass are more dangerous than all types of sharks combined by more than 100 times. Meeting with crocodiles annually ends tragically for about 1000 people.
If you can somehow fight off a shark, then it is almost impossible to escape from a swift throw of a crocodile. This is confirmed by statistics. The chance of surviving a shark attack is estimated at 86%, and when attacked by a crocodile - only 32%, despite the fact that the length of the attacking reptiles often does not exceed 2 or 3 meters, or the attack is only defensive / territorial / opportunistic in nature.

Of course, for humans, crocodiles are more dangerous than sharks. But what does this have to do with "our" meeting of a crocodile and a shark?

It seems that among other predators it has never been seen that such relatively small and weak prey fought off them in battle, as happens with sharks!
And do not say that people "are not considered prey by sharks" - white sharks are opportunistic predators (see, for example, http://sharkmans-world.eu/research/carcharodon2.pdf), willingly eating anything available to them. them meat. What they just didn’t find in the stomachs of white sharks: swallowed whole sea turtles, three large pieces of moon fish, whale shark meat, small sharks, sea otters, sea birds, herring, sardines, bivalves, crabs and even completely inedible objects - they literally everything is eaten. None of them are "narrow specialists in pinniped nutrition." Examination of the contents of the stomach shows that white sharks of any size are primarily ichthyophages (i.e. fish eaters). Secondly, they also live in such regions (for example, in the Mediterranean Sea) where there are no or almost no pinnipeds. White sharks do not have any selective preference for more high-calorie food, which has even been demonstrated empirically using baits. So why do white sharks often leave people? After all, a person is not some kind of gastronomic exception for them, especially against the background of crabs, bivalves, sea urchins and small fish eaten by even the largest sharks. Oddly enough (and I say this in all seriousness, based on the facts available), because a person is able to physically resist a shark. Sharks simply do not tend to suppress prey resistance - young seals, sea lions and baby whales (rare prey for white sharks) are immobilized by sharks with bites to the limbs and wait at a safe distance until the marine mammal, unable to swim away and bleeding, eventually chokes. Sometimes the process of killing such prey that can injure a shark can last for several tens of minutes, if not several hours.
When a white shark realizes that a 70 kg swimmer is resisting more actively than a 50 kg baby fur seal (which can only fight back with teeth that can not always reach the muzzle of a shark that has grabbed a seal pup), it shudders and uses exactly the same tactics as against more dangerous animals . During this time, a person is pulled out of the water, or he himself gets to the shore, since attacks usually occur in the coastal zone. A white shark is simply not physically capable of killing a person instantly, since its jaws are poorly adapted for "working" with bones - relatively quickly it can only damage soft tissues with them (and then only because of the difference in size with the victim and the thinness of human skin) .
That's the whole secret of the low fatality of shark attacks. Other versions do not stand up to scrutiny. White sharks also do not tend to protect territory, offspring, and even food sources.

Crocodiles are a completely different story. Unlike sharks, they are forced to keep their prey in their teeth, despite its resistance: even with a broken leg, large and strong ungulates are able to get ashore, where even on "three legs" they retain a significant superiority over crocodiles in terms of speed. This is especially true when attacking a victim in shallow water, which is often done by crocodiles living in isolated reservoirs or small swamps. Crocodiles are forced to endure and, moreover, even suppress any resistance that arises from the victim. They usually do this by vigorous shaking and rolling, often diving underwater with their prey. The only real chance to save yourself from a crocodile is to poke it right in the eye without confusion, which will cause a defensive reflex and force the predator to open its jaws. It can also help to shift the valve in the throat of a crocodile, which does not allow it to choke when under water with its mouth open. In such a situation, the victim gets the very seconds in which she can get out of the water before a second attack. Although, it doesn't always work. But it is practically useless to fight crocodiles: surprisingly, even such strong, resourceful and well-armed animals as big cats! There are many cases when people who had edged weapons with them were forced to amputate a limb seized by a crocodile, which it was useless to beat in the hope of making it open its jaws.
Real crocodiles are also characterized by fierce fights with representatives of their own species, sometimes ending in the death of one of the opponents. Especially when it comes to territorial male saltwater crocodiles - the most aggressive and ferocious members of their family. They tirelessly patrol their territorial areas and are sometimes able to pounce even on an animal that is not a non-crocodile for no reason. Such behavior is most clearly expressed during the breeding season - there are cases when crocodiles annoyed by the noise tried to attack helicopters flying at low altitude.

So, it is the crocodile that is the very "fierce" predator, able to kill large prey and suppress its resistance in battle, and not a frankly non-conflict shark.

Now that we have dealt with the main misconceptions and dismantled many important physical aspects of animals, we can proceed to a more detailed assessment of their combat capabilities, reasons and place of a possible meeting. This part analyzes primarily the physical potential of animals, without any focus on their natural behavior.

1) Places and causes of the collision:

The natural habitat of many sharks - the seas and oceans - are not a hindrance to crocodiles, contrary to the common misconception that "crocodiles live only in fresh water." In general, real crocodiles evolved precisely in brackish waters: their ancestors lived in estuaries, estuaries, mangroves, and even on sea coasts. Actually, all modern real crocodiles and gharials have salt glands and are equally adapted to being in brackish water. But only some species can be considered partially "marine". Yes, exactly “partially”: they are not able to drink salt water and, when they are in the sea, they get it from food, while minimizing the consumption of moisture due to the keratinized oral cavity and changes in the concentration of excretion products. In particular, combed crocodiles, while hunting or searching for new territories, can swim into the open sea, where they may encounter sharks. Recently, it has even been documented that crocodiles intentionally dive under water at a considerable distance from the coast. The purpose of this kind of action is not clear at the moment, but the most logical option seems to be hunting large aquatic animals. Great white sharks are pelagic fish that prefer cooler waters away from crocodile swimming areas. But still, being sluggish opportunistic predators, sometimes they look for food in warm coastal waters.

Adult male saltwater crocodiles tend to prey on large animals. In addition, as mentioned earlier, they fiercely defend their territory from any kind of violators. Therefore, knowing the aggression and predatory nature of the crocodile, it is not difficult to imagine its accidental or deliberate attack even on a very large white shark.
An attack from a white shark, in turn, is unlikely. This is due to the rather large size of the crocodile and its ability to fend for itself. Perhaps the shark might try to taste the crocodile "by the teeth", but given the lightning-fast reaction, widest angle field of view (about 270 degrees, with small blind spots only behind and in front), a flexible spine and sensitive receptors covering the entire body of a crocodile, the reptile can easily protect itself and at least drive away the shark, making it think twice before trying to approach the crocodile during second time.

2) Musculature and movement of animals:

The streamlined body of the white shark is well suited for swimming: a 3.5 meter shark can reach speeds of up to 40 km / h for short distances, and a 5.5 meter individual can reach 25 km / h. Surprisingly, the saltwater crocodile is just as efficient a pelagic swimmer as the great white shark, with a comparable hydrodynamic efficiency ratio. This means that crocodiles expend no less energy swimming than sharks. Crocodiles are also able to reach decent speeds in the region of 24-32 km / h, and dive to a depth of 60 meters, which makes them almost as agile swimmers as white sharks. Paradoxically, but adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle, crocodiles have more effective buoyancy regulators than sharks: sharks have neutral buoyancy, maintained by fat in the liver, and constantly expend effort on maintaining it, while thanks to the lungs moving air inside themselves and moving the liver inside the body cavity "liver-piston mechanism", in crocodiles buoyancy is positive or negative. This allows reptiles, if desired, to float to the surface, "like a float", or vice versa - to go to the bottom "like a stone", without wasting energy on swimming in the water column.

Shark muscles are pretty primitive. They are not able to control the force of contraction of the white (i.e. "power", working in anaerobic mode) muscles, in contrast to bony fish and, of course, higher vertebrates. In sharks, white muscle fibers work literally on an on-off basis. This means that the muscles of the sharks, designed for high efforts, are always working to the limit of their capabilities. Red (i.e. "hardy", working in aerobic mode) muscle fibers in sharks are responsible only for cruising and other simple movements: yes, it is thanks to them that sharks are constantly in motion and create the illusion of great physical activity. Moreover, the red muscle fibers in large sharks become proportionally slower and weaker compared to those in smaller sharks. Those. large sharks need to increase the number of red muscles in order to simply move and filter water through the gills. Naturally, to the detriment of the amount of white muscles that provide strength for powerful power throws.
It should also be taken into account that no matter how "calcified" the shark's cartilaginous skeleton would be, by itself it is unable to attach powerful skeletal muscles to itself and withstand high loads without deformation. Therefore, the muscles of even large white sharks themselves are quite weak. The muscle mass of the white shark is approximately 70% of the total body weight of the animal, however, one must take into account the fact that a significant proportion of muscle formations serve these fish not for movement, but to create support for the internal organs: in particular, they have a peculiar analogue (of course, less effective in terms of protecting internal organs) ribs.
Great white sharks are capable of accumulating relatively more lactate in the blood than small ones, and thus are somewhat more tolerant of anaerobic effort (which growth in size is common to all vertebrates). However, relying on anaerobic metabolism and having a smaller amount of oxygen at their disposal (with an increase in linear dimensions, the gill area that collects oxygen increases by the square, and the volume that requires oxygen increases by the cube), they recover much longer than their small relatives. The accumulation of large amounts of lactic acid can also be dangerous to the shark's body - it is known that many mako and shore sharks, having smaller sizes and similar metabolic rates (hence less vulnerable to anaerobic lactic acidosis), still die after capture from irreversible metabolic disorders as a result of active muscle activity.

In large crocodiles, white muscles absolutely predominate. It is attached to strong bones and allows you to generate impressive forces. However, its "rest" takes a large amount of time, and therefore crocodiles cannot afford long and very active movement (however, with cruising, holding the victim in their teeth, etc., their aerobic metabolism is more developed than that of sharks). doing great).
Anaerobic performance in crocodiles is enormous, not only due to their large muscle mass(skeletal muscle makes up about 60% of body weight), leaving little room for internal organs, but also their unique resistance to the accumulation of lactate in the blood and muscles. Anaerobic metabolism, quickly using the "fuel" available to the muscles, gives crocodiles truly phenomenal strength in the first couple of fights!
Large saltwater crocodiles are champions among all vertebrates in the ability to accumulate the relative and absolute amount of lactate in the blood without harm to themselves. Part of the lactic acid is "deposited" in the osteoderms and bones of the skull, but the main thing is that the crocodile organism itself is extremely resistant to violations of the pH value. This allows them to fight and keep their muscles in “tone” much longer than sharks, and also reduces the risk of metabolic disorders dangerous for the body due to an excess of lactic acid. Thus, large combed crocodiles are able to actively fight for more than 2, and some especially large individuals, as you know, remained active even after 6 hours of fighting, which significantly exceeds the time required to completely exhaust any, even the largest white shark.

In underwater combat, maneuverability is also very important, in which the combed crocodile also surpasses the white shark. Crocodiles have a very flexible spine in both vertical and horizontal directions (it is known that a crocodile is able to bend so as to be able to bite itself almost at the very base of its tail), which attaches disgrouped muscles to itself, allowing crocodiles to easily turn around and grab an enemy or prey located directly behind. The cartilaginous spine of the white shark itself is quite flexible. But the muscles attached to it are rather weakly differentiated and not very strong. In addition, the shark is somewhat thicker than the crocodile and has neutral buoyancy, which means it needs more space and more physical effort to turn around.

Therefore, the crocodile will turn and turn around faster, making sharper zigzag movements than the shark, which, in turn, has only the ability to swim away from the crocodile due to its high speed. The powerful neck and strong tail of the combed crocodile will allow him to physically control his opponent if he captures him with his jaws. In general, the white shark is noticeably inferior to the saltwater crocodile in terms of physical strength, agility and endurance.

3) Sense organs:

The lateral line of the shark allows you to detect objects at a very long distance. The same function is performed by sensitive receptors located in the crocodile throughout the body. The shark has a good sense of smell, but crocodile receptors are able to detect and chemical composition water, i.e. also "smell".
It is worth noting that at close range, the developed sense organs of a shark can disorientate its mistress, while the crocodile's numerous receptors allow it to determine the exact distance to an approaching target.
The combed crocodile has a noticeably more developed reaction than the shark. I think the following observation is significant:
"Crocodile makes terrible adversary his explosive power, monstrous jaws. A zoologist from Sri Lanka, Deraniyagala, observed how an adult langur, a fairly large monkey, who had escaped from a cage, tried to jump over a pool where a three-meter crocodile lay at the bottom. The motionless, sleepy reptile, having jumped halfway out of the water, grabbed the monkey in the jump! A screech, one sip, and the monkey was gone. Five years in a cramped pool did not affect the mobility of the crocodile in any way ... "
http://aquaria2.ru/node/8480 (by the way, quite a good article for the Russian-speaking Internet, mentioning the facts that were disclosed and analyzed in detail only some time later.)
Or, for example, this is a video where a crocodile reacted to a shark when it got very close: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJHW9ilhwLk (0:07).
Cott (1961) gives two examples of the phenomenal reaction speed of crocodiles: in one case, a young Nile crocodile caught a dragonfly flying over water by the wing, and in another, a larger crocodile grabbed a tiger fish that jumped over the water right in the air.

4) Armament:

Previously, it was already painted that the jaws of a crocodile are more than three times more powerful than a shark's. Even if you compare the bilateral bite force of a shark with the one-sided bite force of a crocodile (the bilateral bite force of a crocodile, in turn, should be another 50% stronger). Moreover, the pressure at the tip of the jaws in crocodiles is 2/3 of the pressure at the base, and in sharks - 1/2. Those. in the latter, more jaw force is lost from the base to the tip of the jaws, despite having shorter muzzles (see data from previously mentioned works on bite force). Most likely, this is due to special muscles located on the crocodile's skull, which absorb shocks and loads, and effectively distribute the resulting pressure when the jaws are compressed.

But what kind of weapon is actuated by the jaw muscles?
In a white shark, teeth reach 5 cm in length, have triangular shape and unevenly serrated at the edges. They have no roots and fall out from comparatively small efforts, but at the same time they are very numerous. The principle of operation of the jaws of a white shark is comparable to the work of a hand saw - by shaking its head, the shark cuts its prey with its teeth. This is an energetically expensive tactic that loses some of its effort due to water resistance, but is quite effective in dismembering a fish or a young seal into several pieces suitable for swallowing, or inflicting a bleeding wound on a larger marine mammal. More is not required of the white shark: as mentioned earlier, it is an opportunistic predator, in its adult state it feeds on carrion and small animals - mainly fish, and only occasionally (for example, when visiting pinniped rookeries) attacking marine mammals when those are young, sick or injured. A healthy sea lion is not something that is too large for a white shark (after all, the mass of an adult white shark usually exceeds the mass of adults of most species of eared seals by 4 or 5 times) prey - it is simply unable to keep up with him, while the seal freely bypasses and bites the shark's gills and tail.
Some sources often mention that sharks are allegedly able to bite through the shells of sea turtles with their teeth. In fact, this is mainly attributed to tiger sharks, not white sharks, and nothing like this has ever been observed in practice with live turtles. The shells of dead turtles soak in the water and undergo decomposition processes, which eventually makes them available to sharks. Lemon and tiger sharks, feeding on a fresh turtle carcass, are able to bite off only flippers, head and tail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3mkTgzWKCQ a decent-sized tortoise with a carapace length of at least 60 cm.

The combed crocodile has thick, strong, and rounded teeth in cross section. They have several small but very sharp edges that help the tooth penetrate the skin, meat and even bones of large animals. The largest tooth in the crocodile mouth is usually the fourth tooth from the lower jaw, reaching 9.5 cm in length in a 4.8 m individual. It serves to effectively and quickly pierce the skins of the thickest-skinned victims for subsequent dismemberment.
In general, the teeth of crocodiles are adapted primarily to hold onto their prey. After all, otherwise, in most cases, the victim would simply get out of the water with pieces of meat torn out. But this is not a design flaw: the teeth of the upper and lower jaws of the crocodile are aligned with each other in such a way that the smallest teeth of the other are located against the largest teeth of one jaw, forming a kind of "scissor-like" bite in the middle part of the jaws, which allows the crocodile to bite off a large one if desired. a piece of meat from the victim. Lateral jerks to the sides are also used, as well as most effective reception- "deadly rotation", with the help of which the crocodile literally unscrews what it cannot bite off.
In the tea swamps of Australia, some saltwater crocodiles are known to specialize in feeding on Asian water buffaloes, overcoming these large and strong animals in shallow water.
The following observation by Alfred Brehm about a relative of the combed crocodile, the Nile crocodile, will be very indicative:
"He hunts even large mammals: he drags donkeys, horses, bulls and camels to the depths of the river. On the two main branches of the Nile, shepherds annually lose many animals from their herds. We saw a bull lying on the shore without a head near the Blue Nile. Its owner , crying, told us that a few minutes before that, “the son, grandson and great-grandson of a monster cursed by Allah” grabbed him and bit off his head with his teeth, and I still can’t explain to myself, despite the strong armament of the mouth, such a powerful manifestation of strength. That he overcomes the camel, I later became convinced.
During my stay in Khartoum, a crocodile bit off the leg of a camel that went to the White Nile to drink, and when I rode to the river, I saw that the shepherds in Eastern Sudan take precautions when watering their camels. They drive the herds into the river with a strong cry, and all the animals at once, in order to drive the crocodile away with noise and bustle. Smaller animals, cows, horses, donkeys, sheep and goats are never watered directly from a river in which crocodiles live, but always from specially dug pools and ponds on the shore. Shepherds must fill these reservoirs with water, or they fence off an area in the river itself with a thick thorn wattle fence in order to form a watering place safe from terrible predators.

Shark teeth and jaws are designed to eat small and soft-bodied animals. Relatively large animals are a rare item in the diet of the white shark, which gets it for lunch, mainly in a weakened or dead form. At the same time, the teeth and jaws of the combed crocodile are a tool for holding and killing resisting large prey. The second design will definitely be more deadly and incomparably a priority in a battle with a proportionate enemy.

5) Other features:

The white shark rarely attacks relatively large marine mammals if they are healthy and able to resist. However, sometimes this kind of predation takes place if, for one reason or another (for example, swimming in troubled waters), the animals lose their vigilance and do not detect the shark. At the maximum, sharks killed animals (medium-sized sea elephants) weighing, roughly speaking, up to half of the shark itself.
As a rule, a shark injures a large victim of a limb, thereby depriving it of a decisive advantage in agility and does not allow it to escape. Further, the victim is exhausted by attacks, the interval between which can be a very decent amount of time, and eventually drowns or dies from blood loss.
It is curious, but it is crocodiles that are very resistant to blood loss: their perfect circulatory system quickly blocks the access of blood to damaged areas. And the appearance of the crocodile is somewhat disorienting for the shark - it will hardly know where it is better to strike.
The back of the crocodile is covered with a kind of "armor" - osteoderms that serve to quickly heat the body, which are unlikely to succumb shark teeth. In general, the combed crocodile has no weaknesses in front of the white shark: even its seemingly vulnerable belly compared to the armored back is actually protected by powerful muscles and abdominal ribs. Well, of course - it is covered with trouble-free reflexes.

On the contrary, if a combed crocodile grabs a white shark, it will simply pass and cut it vulnerable body with their jaws.

Saltwater crocodile is a born fighter. As already mentioned, interspecific fights of crocodiles, ending in the death of one of the rivals, are not something out of the ordinary. White sharks do not fight with each other at all if they are approximately equal in size individuals, determining the dominant side in size. In addition to aggression and cockiness, combed crocodiles also demonstrate rare vitality, surviving with bitten off limbs, tails and pieces of jaws, and then even defending their territory being "disabled", despite the highest intraspecific competition.

A frankly ridiculous consideration used when comparing these animals:

"The crocodile will not have enough air, it will float to the surface, and the shark will deliver the finishing blow, the only chance for a reptile is to finish the battle quickly, but such a large prey will not be able to kill quickly" - says a statement borrowed from "animal battles". But after all, in an active state, crocodiles are able to stay under water for about 30 minutes! Yes, and no one forces a crocodile to swim after a shark, and especially to dive to a depth after it (and if this happens, it will easily float up, changing its center of gravity and not losing attention), it will rather just “hang” at the surface and will to catch a shark with its jaws when it approaches. Of course, in reality, if a combed crocodile fails to grab a white shark that swam up to it right away, then the shark, after a sharp throw in its direction, will simply be scared and swim away, while the crocodiles will not be able to catch up with it, and it is unlikely that it will even try to do it. do. But we are considering a slightly different scenario, right?

Having dealt with the abilities and combat skills of rivals that they can use in a fight, we can imagine what they can do to each other. This is a purely hypothetical part that does not affect the analysis of the natural behavior of animals when they meet.

Imagine a scene: a combed crocodile is swimming, and a white shark is meeting it. And as silly as it sounds, both animals are burdened with the goal of killing each other at any cost.

What can a crocodile do to a shark? The combination of its powerful jaws, designed to capture large prey, with strong teeth, is truly a formidable weapon. Grabbing the tail, pharynx, lower head, or lower jaw, inapplicably, will result in the death of the shark. A crocodile can tear off the shark's fins, lower jaw, twist or tear out a piece of meat from it (and thereby, say, rip open its belly), break its tail, or even crush its head. In fact, in theory, a crocodile could even just pinch a shark in its jaws, change its center of gravity (thereby constantly floating to the surface like a bobber) and keep it near the surface until it exhausts itself and drowns.

On the contrary, in order to kill a crocodile, a shark will have to ruffle a tenacious reptile with its teeth for a long time: it will have problems with the skin and especially the bones of the crocodile covering the internal organs. A common shark tactic against dangerous prey is to bite and hide, futile due to the crocodile's great resistance to blood loss.
Even if the shark has a chance for a surprise attack, it is unlikely to work because of the sensitive receptors that cover the body of the crocodile. Moreover, the white shark closes its eyes for their protection, and at the moment of the attack it becomes completely blind. Salted crocodile at this moment can simply intercept the shark, grabbing it right by the muzzle and tearing it apart. If the shark misses, the crocodile can suddenly start and grab it, preventing the fish from escaping after an unsuccessful attack. But the shark's speed should help it get away from the reptile and hypothetically try to attack again. Even when attacking a crocodile at a right angle from below or above, the shark will not be able to avoid retaliatory bites due to the flexibility of its opponent.

Without drawing premature conclusions, let's turn to the most important part of the analysis - the practice, the meetings of sharks and crocodiles known to us:

1) The case of killing a 5.5 meter white shark by a 6 meter combed crocodile described by Gerald Wood. The crocodile turned the shark on its back and literally tore off its head. Australian fishermen have claimed that on other occasions they have seen saltwater crocodiles have killed other white sharks of the same size.
Gerald Wood, 1982. The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats.

2) The "Megalania" is mentioned, which entered the ocean and killed the white shark that attacked it. Most likely, this is precisely the combed crocodile, and "megalania" is a story of the aborigines adjusted to the cryptozoological sensation.
"Author and journalist Peter Hancock is an expert on the Aboriginal legends of Megalania Prisca. He relates one story of a Megalania that wandered into the ocean. The Megalania is attacked by a great white shark. The Megalania kills the shark and drags it to shore . Hancock notes that it is strange that these stories and paintings are so fresh with Aborigines tens of thousands of years after Megalania Prisca supposedly went extinct."
Real Dragons: the Search for Megalania Prisca The MonsterQuest Search for Megalania Prisca and Giant Komodo Dragons.

3) The book "Fangs of the Sea" by Norman W. Caldwell and Norman Ellison describes the easy killing of a 408 kg bull shark by a hungry saltwater crocodile:
"They fought for front rank as they crept over the mud and waited. Foot by foot the crocodile worked its way backwards. How it managed to drag approximately nine hundred pounds" weight of shark through the soft oozy mud I cannot tell. But it did. I saw the last gasping struggle made by the whaler as it was hauled from the water; heard the last snapping of jaws. Then silence. The crocodile had won the unequal struggle. But its grip on the tail did not relax until the body of the captive had stiffened. There had been a foul, a complete ugliness about the fight, if such it could be called. And now, spoils to the victor! Spoils then and there going down his great gullet. I have been told that a crocodile buries its food before eating it. This one did not. It ate and ate and ate. At daybreak, I sculled to the scene. The remains of the shark had been buried in the thick evil-smelling mud. It had been a very hungry crocodile - from the tail well up forward of the dorsal fin had been eaten."

4) The Nile crocodile kills a blunt-nosed (bull) shark in the river mouth.
Tex from quora.com:
"The following observation, which also reported by Pooley (pers. comm.), describes successful attack by adult (~370 cm TL, originally reported as "young") Crocodylus niloticus on large (~300 cm TL) Carcharhinus leucas. This incident also casually mentions Cott (1961) as “fight between a crocodile and a shark was once witnessed in the mouth of the estuary.”"
By the way, predation towards bull sharks is the norm for any large species of crocodiles. See for example Robert Reid (2011) "Shark!: Killer Tales from the Dangerous Depths", Pergamon Press (1981) "Surveys of Tidal River Systems in the Northern Territory of Australia and Their Crocodile Populations", and Possibly shark-eating crocodile can strongly influence the distribution of bull sharks in river systems: Predation by Nile crocodiles on sand sharks has also been recorded.
Renzo Perissinotto, Derek D. Stretch, Ricky H. Taylor. Ecology and Conservation of Estuarine Ecosystems: Lake St Lucia as a Global Model.
In general, unidentified remains of fairly large sharks are found relatively regularly in the stomachs of crocodiles.
Malcolm Penny, 1991, Alligators and Crocodiles.
The IUCN Amphibia-reptilia Red Data Book, Part 1. IUCN, 1982.
According to the Discovery Shark Research Team and Adam Britton, Shark-Croc Showdown (Shark Week 2017) describes the presence of crocodile teeth marks on the bodies of 10% of river sharks and sawfish examined. Britton also described the discovery of the remains of tiger sharks in the stomachs of crocodiles (quote from "Animal Battles", 37 minutes: "We found crocodiles with sharks in their bellies. It has been proven that crocodiles defeat sharks.", the species of sharks was established by personal correspondence), based which he assumes that the combed crocodile will cope with the great white shark.
Crocodiles, at least combed ones, are generally free to hunt sharks of their size:
"...and are sometimes known to attack and kills sharks of close to their own size".
Karleskint, G., Turner, R., & Small, J. (2012). Introduction to marine biology. Cengage Learning.
Blue Carbon Reservoir of the Blue Planet, Abhijit Mitra, Sufia Zaman, 2014.
And even young crocodiles, about 1.2 m long, attack sharks:
5) A combed crocodile was seen eating a tiger shark on the beach.
Croc Spotted Devouring a Tiger Shark by NQ Fishing Show, Townsville, North Queensland.
Original text:
"A CLASH of the titans has taken place off a Townsville beach, with a crocodile spotted devouring a tiger shark.
The bizarre spectacle is just one of two croc sightings at the Northern Beaches within the past month.
They come as rangers prepare to launch the Newman Government's new crocodile management plan in the coming months.
Department of Environment and Heritage Protection wildlife manager Mike Devery said the department received indirect reports of a crocodile eating a tiger shark at Toolakea Beach, 30km north of Townsville, in the early hours of March 13.
"A subsequent report ... advised the witness had returned to the site and the crocodile and shark carcass were gone."
The department also received a report of a 2m long crocodile in a remote area of ​​Bluewater Creek, the second report of a croc in the creek since January.
"The animal was on the bank but slid into the water and submerged as the witness approached," Mr Devery said.
"It wasn't seen again."
James Cook University shark expert Dr Colin Simpfendorfer believed the tiger shark may have been dead before the crocodile decided to feast upon it.
"I don't think it"s something that you would normally see happen, just as a straight predation event," Dr Simpfendorfer said.
"It"s more likely that the shark was either sick or dead for that to have occurred, and it was more than likely a scavenging event, rather than a predation event."
He said it would be difficult for a saltwater crocodile to attack and kill a tiger shark at sea, unless it was a small shark.
"I would guess they would probably flee each other quite rapidly, because they don't want to interact," he said.
"Most animals, when they get into a situation, unless they know they have dominance, they would try and escape.
"They both live in habitats that aren"t very similar, and tiger sharks rarely come close to shore."
Toolakea Beach resident Bodhi Ashley-Doran, 15, said he frequently spotted sharks and crocodiles off the beach, but never attacking each other.
He said a 4m crocodile had been spotted regularly on the beach earlier this year.
"There"s always been crocs in the creek," he said. "I did see a shark off the beach, once eating a turtle in early March."
He said the locals knew about the crocodile in Bluewater Creek, which had been seen in a freshwater area near the bridge."
Dr. Colin Simpfendorfer ruined the whole score with his statements. =) But it is known that combed crocodiles force out tiger sharks from coastal waters. Crocodiles off the Cape York Peninsula in Australia, which juts out into Papua New Guinea, even have a cautionary tale among divers and boaters: "Don't worry about the tiger sharks, the saltwater crocodiles have already eaten them." -
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/372532200402254680/
So, they should be quite capable of killing tiger sharks. Yellow Waters staff in Australia found a 4.6m tiger shark killed and eaten by a saltwater crocodile:
"This was the remains of a 15 foot Tiger shark; it seems that it had provided breakfast for one rather hungry saltwater crocodile! But it was too much even for that bad boy! The staff at Yellow Waters had never known a crocodile attack a shark before..."
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1125968627415703/
Estuaries, including the Australian estuaries, as in the photo with a dead shark, are quite a typical habitat for tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier): But, obviously, only if there are no crocodiles.

6) Fearful reaction of sharks to the smell of chemical secretions of crocodiles. In this case, C. acutus is an American sharp-snouted crocodile, reaching a very modest size in the coastal zone (up to a maximum of 4-5 m, usually less than 3 m) and lemon sharks, growing to at least 3.5 m.
Joseph A. Sisneros,c & Donald R. Nelson. "Surfactants as chemical shark repellents: past, present, and future".
"Perhaps the most encouraging area of ​​shark repellency research is in the study of semiochemistry. This area of ​​research was first proposed by Rasmussen & Schmidt (1992) who suggested that sharks may be chemically aware of the presence of potential danger by sensing the bodily secretions Rasmussen & Schmidt (op. cit.) hypothesized that lemon sharks, especially juveniles, inherently recognize chemical exudates produced by the American crocodile, Crocodylus acutus, a known predator of sharks."
A similar reaction to the smell of sharp-snouted crocodiles was observed in blunt-snouted sharks. This is the subject of the Shark Week 2016 film from Discovery, in Russian called "Jungle Sharks". An example was given when a large number of adult sharks, tormenting the bait, reacted violently to a repellent with the smell of a sharp-snouted crocodile (moreover, quite modest in size) and left the feeding area, returning only when the smell dissipated.
fearful reaction reef sharks to the approach of a juvenile saltwater crocodile, as well as how an adult saltwater crocodile drove away lemon sharks of proportion to itself (considered, by the way, one of the most aggressive sharks), was demonstrated in the Shark-Croc Showdown movie of Shark Week 2017.

7) The 1819 book by George Dawson Flinter, titled "A History of the Revolution of Caracas", describes an attack by a 2.4 m sharp-snouted crocodile on a huge, most likely white shark.
Text translation:
"I witnessed, in Puerto Cabello, in the 1817s, the most stubborn battle between a shark and an alligator: the shark was very large, the alligator was not more than eight feet in length. Hundreds of spectators gathered on the beach to see such an incredible scene The alligator fought more violently, hitting its antagonist with its tail, causing the shark to roll over belly up, but still trying to grab the alligator with its teeth. shots, and we finally succeeded in killing the alligator, which the commander of this place politely presented to me: they prepared it for me and I brought it with me to Cadiz, where I gave it to a gentleman who had a small cabinet with curious things, and after that, felt very satisfied placing a stuffed alligator among them due to the special situation in which it was taken.This reptile was taken in sea water, not far from ma ngro trees, which refutes, however, contrary to the opinion of many, that alligators can only be found in fresh water. I saw some of them in the same place; and the commandant had two live little alligators, about eighteen inches long, in a tub of water. There is another popular belief, which I believe has been found by experience, that their skins cannot be penetrated by a musket bullet; but, I think it depends on the bullet, still more on the distance and the quality of the powder, and not on some invulnerability of their skin. Alligators, as I have already said, are very numerous on the banks of the Tui River, and in all the rivers adjacent to the plains, where they eat a large number of livestock.
"Alligators" were previously called all neotropical crocodiles. This is so, for reference.

8) A fight between a ~2.1 m shark (most likely a blunt-nosed shark) and a ~3 m combed crocodile in the Adelaide River is described in detail. That is, the animals had approximately the same weight. The crocodile threw the shark into the air with a wave of its tail, demonstrating its remarkable strength, and then tore it to shreds:
"Darwin, North Australia, Feb. 28. -A shark fought a crocodile on Adelaide River near here and lost. First honors went to the crocodile which, with a sweep of its tail, sent the shark into the air. The crocodile then divide The crocodile is estimated to have been 10 feet long and the shark 7 feet. , by the shooting party from Darwin who saw the battle."
The Sunday Morning Star - Feb 27, 1938.

That's not all famous cases reprisals of crocodiles over more or less large sharks, but they are completely enough to understand the essence of the interaction of these animals. There is no point in mentioning the countless massacres of crocodiles over small sharks. They get them for lunch as randomly as any other large fish.

There is very little normal evidence of sharks killing crocodiles (one might say that there is none at all), but we still mention a few of the most curious descriptions:

1) The head of a 3.5 meter Nile crocodile, found by a married couple on the beach, is unconditionally written off in the media as "the activity of a 6 meter white shark." In fact, the cause of death of this crocodile is unknown and no examination of the remains was carried out by authoritative persons. In addition to the couple who discovered her, shocked by the idea of ​​​​a "6-meter shark", other observers put forward the option of cutting off the head by poachers, the result of an attack by a hippopotamus or another crocodile. Many of them seem much more logical and intelligible.
Most likely it was generally a screw of a large vessel, everything is well written here: http://sandcroc2014.livejournal.com/1024.html

2) In Durban ( South Africa) once a large (4.3 m) tiger shark was caught with the remains of the head and forelimbs of a (Nile?) crocodile in the stomach, the size of the remains of which is not specified. From this came the rarely mentioned, but existing myth that, they say, "the remains of crocodiles are found in the stomachs of tiger sharks": in fact, you need to be able to distinguish between an exception (a single find) and a rule. Moreover, experts consider this case of eating carrion, because. the shark ate the least edible parts. In general, in the stomachs of tiger sharks, the remains of terrestrial or river animals are regularly found, washed into the sea already being dead.

3) Exceptional white shark attacks on sharp-snouted crocodiles have been reported from Fuerte.
The size and age of the animals, as well as the circumstances and outcome of the attacks, are not specified - everything is described from the words of local residents.
Medem, F. 1981. Los crocodylia de Sur America, Volume 1, Los Crocodylia de Colombia. Colciencias, Colombia.
However, as you know, the sharp-snouted crocodiles living on the islands do not reach large sizes. And in coastal habitats in general. For example, the average adult weight in coastal Belize has been estimated at only 77.8 kg. Perhaps the shark could handle such a small crocodile.
Platt, S. G., T. R. Rainwater, J. B. Thorbjarnarson & D. Martin 2011. Size estimation, morphometrics, sex ratio, sexual size dimorphism, and biomass of Crocodylus acutus in the coastal zone of Belize.

In general, both theoretical and practical considerations speak of an unequivocal victory of the combed crocodile over the great white shark in a hypothetical fight.
The white shark has no chance to kill the combed crocodile with its ineffective jaws against large and even more protected and blood loss-resistant animals, while the crocodile can easily tear the shark to pieces.
In fact, these animals are from, let's say, completely different "fighting leagues". You can compare this observation:
"In the Philippines in 1831, a giant saltwater crocodile, one of the most dangerous species reptiles, ate at least one shepherd (and one horse). The animal known as the Mugger was somewhere between 27 and 30 feet long, had a girth of about 11 feet behind its front legs, and had a head that was 5 feet 6 inches long from the nose to the first vertebra.
It was a formidable opponent. A French plantation owner saw him attack a horse and rider fording a river where he lived. They escaped when the crocodile's jaws slammed shut on the saddle and tore it off the horse's back. The rider, a shepherd, drew his sword and waited for the animal in shallow water, despite advice to the contrary. Ignoring the courageous blows with the sword, Mugger grabbed him by the leg and dragged him away.
Two months later, the crocodile attacked again, killing the horse, which was the final straw. The plantation owner, a visiting American hunter, and the locals decided that was enough. Using harpoons, nets, ropes and firearms, they attacked. But the crocodile kept them for six hours before he was finally killed. It is reported that only 40 people were able to pull him ashore.
The plantation owner presented the American visitor, George Russell, with Mugger's skull. Russell donated it to the Boston Museum of Natural History, which donated the skull to Harvard."
With this:
"One Australian angler, Elf Dean, broke the world record by spinning the four largest sharks that have been caught with this tackle. All four are great white sharks, each weighing over a ton.
Dean, a jovial, sturdy man, is into growing grapes - of course, when he is not busy catching sharks. He caught his first shark in 1939. She weighed three hundred and ninety kilograms. As the years passed, Dean's skill grew, and so did the weight of the sharks he caught. He hunted, as a rule, in the Great Australian Bay, on the southern coast of the continent. Numerous schools of fish enter the bay and dart, challenging each other's prey, many sharks, including the largest of those that are found in the seas and oceans of the globe.
McCormick. Shadows in the Sea: The First sea ​​Devil, caught in Australia In 1951, Sir Willoughby Norrie, governor of South Australia, caught a great white shark weighing 1009 kilograms - at the time it was the largest shark caught on spinning. Dean was determined to break Norrie's record. And in 1952 he did.
Dean's encounter with his first record-breaking shark came at 2:00 am when, after a day spent searching in vain for a shark big enough to suit his tastes, he dropped anchor and went to bed. He was awakened by the blows on the bottom of the boat. He jumped off his bunk and stepped out onto the deck, and the beam of his flashlight illuminated the dorsal and tail fins of the largest shark he had ever seen. The shark furiously "gored" the boat, intoxicated by the smell of whale oil dripping from the tank at the stern: with the help of whale oil and seal blood, a bucket of which he occasionally poured into the water, Dean left a trail behind his boat that was unusually attractive to sharks. The sharks sensed him from many miles away and followed his boat, trying to get hold of the treat that this appetizing smell promised them.
All night long, a huge shark was noisily hitting the stern of Dean's boat. The smell of food drove her into a frenzy. Once she even grabbed a propeller with her teeth, so that the boat went shaking: it seemed that the shark wanted to wake the sleepers in order to get the promised breakfast. At dawn, Dean threw the line overboard, and the shark immediately grabbed the bait and rushed forward. She beat her tail and spun around her axis. Once she jumped out of the water completely. If she had gone to the depths, she would have been saved, otherwise she soon got tired. Forty-five minutes later it was all over. The shark - it belonged to the great white species - weighed 1058 kilograms and was four meters long. Elf Dean broke the world record. And less than a year later, he broke his own record by catching a great white shark weighing 1,076 kilograms.
On April 10, 1955, Dean caught a 700-pound shark, tied it to the side of the boat, and set off on his search for something more interesting. Suddenly, another shark, of enormous size, rushed at his prey, ignoring Dean, who beat her on the head with a spear handle, she continued to tear off huge pieces from dead body sharks. Finally, Dean's partner cast the baited hook. The shark rushed at her, but somehow managed to catch on the hook with its tail. Dean tried to pull the shark out, but it proved impossible. Then he cut the wood. The baited hooks were thrown again, and this time the shark swallowed the hook. For half an hour, Dean fought the shark, but the shark got off the hook and walked away.
During this time, the boat was carried almost a kilometer from the place where they met the shark. Dean decided to go back and drop anchor. As soon as they anchored, the same shark appeared again from the water - a piece of the line was still dangling on its tail. Dean decided to try his luck again, and this time, after an hour and a half struggle, he managed to take the stubborn shark. She weighed 1141 kilograms. Dean broke his own record for the third time.
The fourth time he broke the world record was in 1959 when he caught a shark weighing 1199 kilograms. But his biggest fish, as happens with all anglers, left him.
In Australia, this shark was nicknamed Unapproachable Lil, because she is a female and broke the heart of more than one sports angler. Dean met her one moonlit night, where he always hunted, in Australia Bay. She hit the boat with her snout and tore off a seal carcass from the stern, which Dean often hung overboard so that the pungent smell would attract sharks. As she dealt with a seal a few paces from the boat, Dean caught a glimpse of her. He was literally salivating. The shark was six meters long and about two tons in weight.
He let fresh bait overboard - another seal. Near it, he threw the forest with his favorite bait - seal liver, impaled on two large hooks. Unapproachable Lil rushed to the attack on hooks, bait, bait - everything that was there. Through the spray raised by her desperate jump, Dean could see that she had taken the bait. He set the reel in motion to make the hooks more firmly stuck in the mouth. Again and again she tried to get off the hook, rising from the depths to the surface, so that her huge graceful body was completely shown from the water. Then she went to the depth - 2000 kilograms of concentrated rage against Dean's hands trembling from unbearable tension and the forest, stretched like a bowstring. She fought for two hours non-stop. Then slowly, inch by inch, turn by turn, he began to reel in the lines.
He led Lil to the side of the boat. His henchman leaned over the side and grabbed a wire leash attached to the end of the line with canvas mittens. But Unapproachable Lil did not even think of admitting defeat. She mustered her strength and plunged into the depths again.
Dean's hands turned into a bloody mess. Bubbles bulged and burst on the palms, fingers cut to the bone by the incessantly twitching fishing rod, numb with pain. Legs cramped. The muscles in my back almost burst from the strain. And the battle continued. The third hour... the fourth hour... Three times Dean led the shark to the boat, three times the sparkling leash emerged from the water, and three times Unapproachable Lil rushed into the open sea with renewed vigor.
... It was the sixth hour of the battle, and Dean felt that his strength was running out. But the trembling of the forest, or rather, his own intuition told him that Lil was beginning to get tired. And again, clenching his teeth in pain, he began to reel in the lines. He led the shark to the side, and his assistant began to choose a leash. Already three meters of a ten-meter leash were in the boat when Unapproachable Lil made a last attempt to free herself. She dived and went to the bottom like a stone. From a sharp jerk, the forest burst - the indomitable Lil was free.
Several sport anglers saw and pursued Unapproachable Lil before Dean met her, others tried to catch her after that, but this has not been done to this day.
40 people with rifles and harpoons are needed to kill a really large male saltwater crocodile (5.5-6.5 meters, but not 8-9 meters, judging by the size of the skull, see document on the size of crocodiles) in a 6 hour struggle. A white shark twice as big is ALMOST overwhelmed by a lone fisherman armed with a spinning reel. And sharks comparable to this crocodile in weight are completely mined in less than an hour ... They are simply incomparable in power! But the "Mugger" from the Philippines is far from the largest and strongest combed crocodile.

Probably, this alignment is connected with the behavior and lifestyle of animals: combed crocodiles, as predators with a much higher level of aggression, often fighting with relatives and attacking large prey, are much better adapted to conflicts and fights than white sharks, who try to avoid fighting with others. predators and feed mainly on small or easily accessible animals. Crocodiles are much more ferocious, reckless, stronger, tenacious and more powerful than any kind of sharks.

Currently, combed crocodiles are found mainly with tiger and blunt sharks, as well as smaller river, coastal or reef species, while modern white shark populations are less and less likely to enter areas of little use to them. warm waters. However, these opponents are generally similar to white sharks in terms of their abilities in similar size ratios, and all also fall prey to crocodiles from time to time.

Let's try to reproduce the model of the battle between two predatory titans - a shark and a crocodile. Both of these creatures have long instilled horror and fear in man. And what does the relationship between them look like? Who has a better chance of winning in the event of a bloody duel?

It is clear that any simulation, especially with the help of imagination, does not quite objectively allow us to assess the capabilities of the sides of the fight. And even more so - it is impossible to draw unambiguous conclusions, considering an imaginary battle between fierce and strong opponents, when the outcome of the battle can be decided by chance. Therefore, let's not forget that the duel is virtual, and it would not be entirely fair to argue based on its outcome that one of the opponents is undoubtedly stronger.
The basis of logical constructions will be our knowledge of these large predatory animals.

From the side of the sharks, the great white shark will perform in the duel, since it is the largest of the aggressive predators, a recognized leader in terms of weapon power and danger. It must be assumed that readers of the site already know enough about the great white shark. This is a large fish, reaching a length of more than 7 m and weighing over 3 tons. The officially registered records for the size of the great white shark are somewhat more modest, but it must be assumed that not all especially large specimens fall on the scales of researchers and scientists.
The main weapon of this predator is sharp teeth, the length of which reaches 5 cm.

Who among the representatives of the crocodile family will be able to resist such an effective killing machine?

There is only one contender for this role - which feels great in sea water and reaches large sizes. For those who have not heard of this monster, brief information:

The combed crocodile is the largest representative of the crocodile family in the class of reptiles (reptiles). It is believed that individual individuals can reach 7 m in length and weigh more than a ton.
This toothy monster lives in the Malay Archipelago, from southeastern Asia to northern Australia. It can be found both on coastal land and at sea, since the combed crocodile is able to live in sea water and even travel between islands. Thanks to the ability to navigate, according to experts, these predators were able to settle from the Hindustan and Indochina peninsulas to Australia.
The combed crocodiles got their name for the presence of two large crests on their heads, stretching from the eyes to the middle of the head.
The teeth and mouth of a crocodile are capable of instilling fear in any living creature. It is believed that the force with which the crocodile squeezes its jaws can reach 2 tons! In the regions where this reptile monster lives, more people die from its teeth than from shark attacks.
The mobility of this predator is admirable - at the time of the attack, it is able to develop lightning attacks at a speed of more than 40 km / h! Residents of places where large crocodiles live claim that the toothy monster is able to snatch a person out of the boat so quickly that comrades nearby do not always have time to notice it.
As you can see, our heroine's opponent is quite worthy - strong, fast, with powerful jaws.

The remains of small sharks were often found in the stomachs of crocodiles, and the remains of crocodiles were found in the digestive tract of large sharks.



Let's try to estimate the chances of winning in an imaginary duel between a great white shark and an adult saltwater crocodile, especially since the meetings in the sea of ​​these two predators are quite real.
The main advantages of a shark are high speed and maneuverability, a more massive body and the ability to stay underwater indefinitely, since it is a fish.

Crocodiles can't long time stay without a breath of air - their circulatory system uses atmospheric oxygen to oxidize the blood. And their main advantage over the shark is the armored skin of the back, which is difficult to bite through even for a shark. But if the battle drags on, and, of course, it cannot be fleeting in the battle of giants, even a crocodile that has captured a shark with its teeth will be forced to open its jaws and float to the surface. He will not succeed in quickly killing a shark with his teeth - the prey is too large, and, moreover, extremely tenacious, so he will soon need a saving breath of air. Floating to the surface, the reptile will expose its vulnerable belly to the shark's teeth, which will decide the outcome of the fight. Of course, with the same size, the crocodile will lose the fight.

Such fights between predators of equal size sometimes take place. There are also eyewitness accounts of such fights. In most cases, they went exactly according to this scenario.

The conclusion is unequivocal - the great white shark will not leave the saltwater crocodile a chance to survive. However, the same can be said about other large types of sharks - tiger, mako. If they are not inferior to the size of a reptile, then advantages such as the ability to breathe underwater, combined with powerful teeth and maneuverability, decide the outcome of a bloody battle.

Of course, in a real battle between titans, success in the battle depends on many circumstances - the surprise of the attack, a successful attack or bite, etc. But in our virtual simulation, we adhered to level playing field for opponents - as for boxers before the gong signal

Saltwater crocodiles live in seas that great white sharks do not like. These predators prefer cool waters. temperate latitudes, where marine pinnipeds are found in abundance. Therefore, fights between crocodiles and small tiger sharks, as well as with representatives of the families of gray and reef sharks, are more likely. Such opponents are significantly inferior in strength to a large crocodile, therefore they often become victims of adult reptiles.

We bring to your attention a video of the popular science channel Discovery, in which scientists and experts simulated a fight between two water titans - a combed crocodile and a great white shark. After watching it, you will be convinced that many moments of this film do not contradict the analyzes, reflections and conclusions given above. By the way, the author of the article about the fight between a crocodile and a shark did not watch this video before the publication of his article.


Relatively small species of sharks are common prey for crocodiles. Salted crocodiles, being the largest modern reptiles and having a tendency to be in brackish water, and even embark on long sea voyages, were sometimes seen in predation in relation to fairly large sand and bull sharks that live in coastal waters and can even swim in rivers.

Nile crocodiles also prey on bull and sand sharks in the Zambezi River and Lake St. Lucia. Lemon sharks avoid areas where sharp-snouted crocodiles live, reacting to the chemical compounds they secrete. And although all these sharks are usually much smaller than large crocodiles, there are references that crocodiles are capable of killing sharks close to their own size. In one such case, a young Nile crocodile killed a large bull shark, and in another, a 3-meter combed crocodile threw a 2.1-meter shark, approximately equal in weight, over the water, and then tore it into pieces.

Encounters of larger species of sharks with crocodiles are relatively rare, as they prefer to completely different places habitat. However, tiger sharks, sometimes hunting in coastal waters or even estuaries, can meet with crocodiles. Yellow Waters personnel reported finding the remains of a 4.6 m tiger shark in the estuary, killed and partially eaten by a saltwater crocodile. A combed crocodile was observed eating a tiger shark on the Townsville beach.

It is believed that tiger sharks avoid the habitat of saltwater crocodiles, possibly due to similar food preferences. So, saltwater crocodiles off the Cape York Peninsula in Australia have an instructive saying among divers and yachtsmen: "don't worry about the tiger sharks, the saltwater crocodiles have already eaten them." On the other hand, a 4.3 meter tiger shark was caught in Dubai, South Africa, whose stomach contents included the remains of the head and forelimbs of an unidentified approximately 2.5 meter crocodile. However, this find is recognized as the result of eating carrion.

Norman Caldwell described the case of a very large shark (weighing about 900 pounds) being killed by a hungry crocodile; according to the author, after a stubborn struggle, the crocodile dragged the emaciated shark to the shore and ate the tail of his victim, leaving the rest to decompose in fetid mud. In another case, a fight between a shark and a crocodile was observed off the coast of Madagascar, as a result of which the shark managed to fight back and bite off part of the crocodile's tail, which the sailors immediately lassoed and pulled out of the water, thereby stopping the fight. There is a report of a mako shark being killed by a combed crocodile in the waters near Kakadu National Park. In the intertidal zones of Northern Australia, especially near estuaries, some scars on the bodies of young saltwater crocodiles have been identified as possible shark tooth marks, suggesting frequent aggressive interactions between these animals.

In addition, there is fairly reliable information about the killing of an approximately 5.5 meter female white shark by a very large, approximately 6 meter combed crocodile in 1939. As a result of this encounter, the crocodile flipped the shark on its back, ripped out its skull, and ripped open its neck using a deadly spin. Moreover, Australian fishermen at the beginning of the 20th century claimed that this was observed repeatedly. Author and journalist Peter Hanhock described a "huge lizard" that entered the ocean and killed a great white shark. There is a fairly high probability that the described "megalania" was actually a combed crocodile. On the other hand, a small 1.2-1.5 meter Australian freshwater crocodile was found in the stomach of a 4.9 m white shark caught in Queensland.

Comparative characteristics
Different types of sharks and crocodiles have different sizes. White sharks usually reach 3.9-4.8 m in length, with a weight of 680-1100 kg, tiger sharks usually have a length of 3.25-4.25 m, with a mass of 385-635 kg, bull sharks on average have a length of 2.3 up to 2.4 m with a mass of 90-130 kg. And while female sharks of these species, as a rule, are larger than males.

In crocodiles, as a rule, the opposite is true - males are much larger and stronger than females. Male combed crocodiles usually reach about 4.3-5.2 m in length and weigh from 400 to 1000 kg, and females - from 2.3 to 3 m and weigh no more than 40-100 kg. Male Nile crocodiles are typically 4 to 5 meters long and weigh 300-600 kg, while females are 2.2 to 3.8 meters long and weigh 40 to 250 kg. The length of adult males of sharp-snouted crocodiles in continental rivers in most of the range ranges from 2.9 to 4 m, and females - from 2.5 to 3 m, while on the islands and coasts they are much smaller - for example, in the coastal zone of Belize, adults weigh only 77.8 kg.

Armament
Salted crocodile is the potential owner of the strongest bite in the animal kingdom. The calculated force of compression of the jaws of a large male combed crocodile weighing 1308 kg is from 27531 to 34424 newtons, which is equivalent to a gravity force of 2809.3-3512.7 kg. The greatest practical result was obtained when measuring the pressure of the jaws of 4.59 m 531 kg of a male combed crocodile - 16414 N, or approximately 1675 kg. Thus, this is the second most powerful bite measured in any animal in the laboratory. The first place here certainly takes the pressure of 2268 kg, issued by more than 5-meter Nile crocodile when measured by Brady Barr. The length of the largest teeth in the mouth of a 4.8 m combed crocodile reaches 9 cm, the total number of teeth in real crocodiles is 64-68, in alligators - 74-80, in gharials - up to a hundred. The teeth of crocodiles are not designed to cut meat, however, given their monstrous bite force and physical strength, this is not a disadvantage - the jaws of a crocodile can easily cut through the skin, muscles and even bones of a large animal, like an ax.

As for the white shark, its force of jaws is relatively small. However, given the structure of the teeth and the mechanism of bite, these sharks do not need to have a very powerful bite. In 2008, a simulation was carried out that made it possible to estimate the power of shark jaws. It has been found that the bite force of a white shark with a length of 2.5 m and a mass of 240 kg can reach 3131 N, while in a shark with a length of 6.4 m and a mass of 3324 kg it would be 18216 N. The bull shark has relatively much more powerful jaws, than the white one - one individual bit the sensor with a force of about 6000 N. The teeth of the white shark reach 5 cm in length and have serrated edges, which make it possible to cut off pieces of soft fat and meat from the victim with some efficiency. Their total number is up to 300. Some other sharks have similar adaptations for feeding on relatively large animals. But it is highly unlikely that the jaws of a shark are able to cope with the strong skin of a crocodile.

Temperament
In general, crocodiles are significantly more aggressive animals than sharks, and tend to be more prone to conflict of any kind.

The most aggressive crocodiles are considered combed crocodiles - the most asocial modern representatives of their squad, known for fierce territorial battles. Among large species of crocodiles, Cuban crocodiles, which dominate over larger sharp-snouted crocodiles in nature and in captivity, and Nile crocodiles also have a high level of aggression. Contrary to popular belief, size plays a far less important role in crocodile conflicts than experience and aggression.

Among sharks, bull sharks are considered the most aggressive. Mako sharks and some smaller shark species can also be aggressive. There is a case in which a mako shark chased away a great white shark. As a rule, the social hierarchy in sharks is based on the size of specific individuals and larger females tend to dominate males.

Such a question may seem strange, and in fact both species of animals did intersect with each other on the Malaysian islands and the northern Australian coast. About who is stronger, it is worth talking about the example of a great white shark and a saltwater crocodile, which have met repeatedly with each other in nature.

What is a shark capable of?

Sharks don't defend their territory, their offspring, or even their food source.

In order to understand who is stronger, let's analyze the features and capabilities of the white shark. The record size of a white shark is 6 m in length, and the recorded weight is about 2 thousand kg. Average weight shark is about 1 thousand kg with a length of about 4.5 m. The bite force of a shark can reach 1800 kg / cm 2.

Encounters with sharks annually end in death for about 15 people.

Since sharks mainly feed on small fish and marine life, they are not accustomed to large prey, which also resist, so the shark attacks relatively slowly and is unable to hold a resisting prey for a long time.

What is a crocodile capable of?

Salted crocodiles show a high level of intolerance and aggression when their territory is encroached upon.

The maximum recorded size of the combed crocodile is 6 m and weighs about 1.5 thousand kg. Therefore, these parameters in animals are approximately the same. At the same time, the bite force of the crocodile, which was recorded, amounted to more than 2000 kg/cm 2 . So, according to this indicator, the crocodile turned out to be much stronger.

Approximately 2,500 people die each year from crocodiles.

Who is stronger

Superiority in combat experience, tactics and weapons make the saltwater crocodile too difficult an adversary for the great white shark

It is almost impossible to fend off the predatory throw of a crocodile. It outperforms the shark in the following ways:

• The attack is faster. Crocodiles are accustomed to large resisting and fast-running prey, and the jaws have enough power and endurance to hold the prey for a long time.
• The reaction is much faster. Crocodiles have a viewing angle of 270 °, a powerful curving spine and sensitive receptors, all of which are poorly developed in a shark.
• Maneuverability is higher. The muscles of the crocodile are most adapted to water conditions, and the muscles of the shark are very primitive.
• More teeth. They are up to 10 cm long, thicker and more powerful than the five-centimeter shark fangs.

The chance of surviving a shark attack on a person is estimated at 86%, a crocodile - only 32%.

When meeting a combed crocodile and a white shark, the second one will obviously not be good, since the crocodile is much stronger than it.