SYDNEY, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Aussie researchers believe tiger sharks are inherently lazy and will take the easiest option to obtain food, even so far as eating already dead turtles.
A decade long study into tiger shark and turtle movements on Australia's great barrier reef revealed the green turtle nesting sight in remote Raine Island is the food source of choice, shaping the apex predator's migration habits.
Each year a multitude of turtles perish from exhaustion after laying dozens of eggs, only for their rotting carcass to give off an oily scent attracting sharks some distance away for an easy food source, rather than risking injury from a live prey that can fight back, lead researcher from Australia's James Cook University Richard Fitzpatrick told Australia's national broadcaster on Monday.
"Sharks are inherently lazy. They'll take the easiest option out," Fitzpatrick, who is also part of documentary company Biopixel, told the ABC.
"The sharks have learnt to migrate to Raine Island for an easy feast."
The study, published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Socio-biology, spent nearly a decade attaching satellite tracking devices on sharks and turtles to further understand how best to protect the delicate ecosystem.
The researchers found sharks would swim as far as Papua New Guinea and deep into the coral sea just to get their lazy meal.
