Скачать или смотреть Barracuda Ram-Biting Feeding Strategy - Justin Grubich

This video was shot at 1500 f/s in order to capture the lightning fast strike of this juvenile Great Barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda). Consider this, your eye captures images at approximately 30 f/s so the strike of the barracuda happens so fast that all your eye can basically see in real time is a flashing silvery blur. Unlike suction feeding fishes, the barracuda strike is unique in that rapid body acceleration (ram) is used to overtake the prey as the jaws are opened widely until the prey is grasped at the back corner of the mouth. Then a powerful bite is inflicted with their specialized scissor-like jaws that enables the barracuda to sever the prey into pieces. As a voracious top predator, this ram-biting feeding strategy and novel jaw morphology allows barracudas to attack prey much larger than the size of their mouths. In fact while fishing off rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, I've witnessed a 5 foot barracuda attack a 25-30 lb amberjack and bite it in two. Truly impressive. To learn more about this research see Grubich et. al. (2008) Functional morphology of bite mechanics in the great barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda). Zoology 111: 16 - 29.