Amazing Animals: Tiger Shark Quiz

Galeocerdo cuvier, otherwise known as the tiger shark, gets its nickname from the spots and stripes that cover young members of the species. It's the second deadliest shark in terms of recorded attacks.

Some have deemed tiger sharks "garbage cans" because they eat nearly anything put in front of them, from seals and turtles to explosives and entire chicken coops with chickens in them.

Tiger shark pups are about 20 to 30 inches long when they're born but typically grow to be 10 to 14 feet long and weigh 850 to 1400 pounds.

Along with pectoral fins on its sides, a tiger shark's caudal fin, located on its tail, helps provide short bursts of speed when hunting prey. Otherwise, however, tiger sharks are considered relatively slow and sluggish.

Tiger sharks love warm waters in tropical regions off the coast. Murky waters in coastal areas provide them with an ample supply of food.

Generally, tiger sharks are thought to be nocturnal, though there are exceptions. In Hawaii, for example, tiger sharks feed during the day, because their prey, monk seals, are diurnal.

Usually, female tiger sharks give birth every 3 years or so. Some scientists attribute this to the fact that the mating process is thought to be quite painful for the female, who is bitten and held down by the male. Some sharks have scarring that provides evidence of these types of bites.

The average size of a litter of tiger shark pups is 40, although it can range from as few as 10 to as many as 80 pups. Females carry their young for a term of 14 to 16 months, but once the pups born, they must fend for themselves.

In Hawaii, the odds are stated to be about 1 in 5 million of being attacked by a shark. Along with great white and bull sharks, tiger sharks help make up 99 percent of the number of recorded shark attacks since 1580.

Tiger sharks not only have flexible palates, they also have ones that change with age. While younger ones feed on birds and sea snakes, they hunt for increasingly larger prey as their bodies and mouths grow.