Shark washes up on Cape Town beach with eyes missing – PICTURES

Local wildlife photographer Alex Aitkenhead has posted pictures of a juvenile thresher shark carcass that washed ashore at Sunset Beach last week.

ALSO READ: SEAL rescued after found walking through the streets of Cape Town

“It’s not often we get to see this remarkable shark, this is a thresher shark, using its long tail to stun its prey and then consume it. I’m not sure why this juvenile washed up on our shores at Sunset Beach,” Aitkenhead wrote.

Aitkenhead explained that thresher sharks were large lamniform sharks of the Alopiidae family found in all temperate and tropical oceans of the world; the family contains three extant species, within the genus Alopias and classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species with a depleting population.

PICTURE | Aardvark found washed up on Cape Town beach

The shark’s eyes were missing, but Aitkenhead said this was a common occurrence and was purely a case of smaller fish eating the softest part of the body.

CAUSE OF SHARK’S DEATH UNKNOWN

It suggests that the animal was in the water for quite a long time, probably about a day or two after it died.

MUST READ | ANIMALS GONE WILD: IT’S BEEN A CRAZY WILDLIFE WEEK!

Thresher sharks’ predators include larger sharks, but the absence of any obvious bite wounds in this instance suggest this particular shark died for other reasons.

WATCH | GRUMPY ELEPHANT TRIES TO STAB BABY HIPPO

The cause of death at the time of publishing remains unknown.

PICTURE | Only in South Africa! Bird makes nest using cable ties