Great White Sharks Bite Chunks Out Of Each Other In Frenzied Attack

Two great white sharks reveal their jagged jaws as they lunge at each other in a frenzied attack captured on camera.

The incredible scenes air in National Geographic WILD's shocking new show Cannibal Sharks which is airing next week as part of its annual Sharkfest extravaganza, which investigates rising reports of the apex predators preying on their own kind.

It's incredibly rare footage, but professor Mark Meekan, from the Australian Institute for Marine Science, reveals that all sharks are cannibals - even fearsome great whites.

He said: "It's not just one rogue shark attacking other sharks or even one species of shark attacking other sharks, it's lots of different sharks turning on each other."

Another gruesome photograph shows a 12-foot long great white shark corpse, almost sliced in half by two major bites, removing most of the middle of the shark's body.

More and more mutilated carcasses are being pulled out of the ocean around Australia's Gold Coast. Some have been so severely bitten, just the bloody severed heads remain.

Professor Meekan has a theory about why this is happening and believes it's to do with measures to keep the hungry predators away from swimmers.

As part of the Gold Coast's safety measures, nets and bated hook lines are deployed. But hooked sharks send out distress signals which are picked up by rival sharks who fancy an easy meal.

Examining a photograph of a shark with two huge bites taken out of its centre, Professor Meekan said: "This is an enormous shark. It's 12-feet long but look at the size of that bite, it's absolutely massive."

He continued: ''That's an immense amount of power you need to take a bite out of another shark like that - you have to be pretty big yourself.

''If I was a betting man, I might even pick another great white shark for that one. These things are apex predators for good reason."

Cannibal Sharks is just one in a series of shark documentaries that National Geographic WILD has made for their seventh annual Sharkfest.

A full week of incredible shark programming from the 15 to 21 July.

Amazingly, new research shows that sharks have been eating each other for millennia.

An examination of fossilised poo taken from the prehistoric orthacanthus - a shark that swam the oceans 300m million years ago - found it contained fossilised baby shark teeth.

Professor Meekan said: "That shows that 300m years ago these were cannibal sharks. Shark on shark predation is a fundamental trait."

Cannibal Sharks airs on National Geographic WILD on Monday 15 July at 8pm.