What are the whale sharks feeding habits?
Whale sharks are planktivores, meaning that the feed primarily on plankton, which are microscopic creatures found in huge quantities throughout the oceans. They will also eat sardines, anchovies, mackerel and the occasional small tuna. When a whale shark is feeding, it pumps large volumes of water over its gills and out its gill slits. The shark s gills have very fine gill rakers which function as sieves and strain plankton from the water. This is known as filter feeding. Even though the whale shark is a planktivore, it still has a mouthful of teeth some 3000 teeth in 300 rows, as a matter of fact. That s why the whale shark is known as Rhincodon, which means rasp-tooth. However, these teeth are very small (less than 1/12 of an inch), so they essentially serve no purpose.
