Video shows the animal trashing around, desperately trying to cough out its meal

Jul 17, 2014 12:40 GMT  ·  By

Towards the end of last week, a great white shark behaving in a rather odd manner showed up close to Western Australia's shoreline. Eventually, the marine creature became stranded on a local beach, and soon enough died.

The video below was shot on July 11 by a group of beach-goers, and it shows the great white shark purposely coming ashore and trashing around. It was two days later that the animal's lifeless body was found at Coronation Beach.

This July 17, the Department of Fisheries in Western Australia issued a statement saying that the unlucky shark most likely passed away after literally biting off more than it could chew.

More precisely, wildlife researchers who have had the chance to watch the July 11 footage and also examine the animal's corpse say that, at the time when it died, the shark had a sea lion lodged in its throat.

It is believed the marine creature attempted to feed on the sea lion and, being a tad too eager to satisfy its hunger, bit off a chuck that turned out to be too big to go down its throat and into its stomach. Eventually, the shark's meal killed the predator.

This is yet to be confirmed, but wildlife researchers suspect the shark was trashing around on the sand at Western Australia's Coronation Beach in an attempt to give itself the Heimlich maneuver and cough out the sea lion stuck in its throat.

“Such a large object may have damaged the shark’s internal organs or impeded water flow into his gills, contributing to his death. Alternatively, the shark may have accidentally become stranded in his attempts to get rid of the obstruction,” says Dr. Rory McAuley.

“This could explain why the shark was exhibiting such unusual behaviour in shallow waters off Coronation Beach. It is possible that the shark was trying to dislodge the blockage,” Dr. Rory McAuley further explains the animal's odd behavior.

After removing the animal's lifeless body from the beach where it was found, wildlife researchers collected tissue and vertebral samples, which they expect will help them gain a better understanding of the world's remaining great white shark population.

What's interesting is that, by the looks of it, the scientific community became acquainted with this great white shark long before the animal showed up dead in Western Australia. Thus, it was earlier this year, in January, when the shark was found swimming off the coast of South Australia and tagged.