World of Sharks

Author: Save Our Seas Foundation

Welcome to World of Sharks, a podcast all about sharks, rays and their underwater habitat brought to you by the Save our Seas Foundation. Forget Jaws there is SO much more to sharks than their fearsome reputation. Join scientist and shark nerd Dr Isla Hodgson as she chats with leading experts in shark science, conservation and storytelling to take a deep dive into the fascinating world of one of the most diverse, well-adapted, enigmatic, misunderstood and threatened groups of animals on the planet.
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Language: en

Genres: Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

Contact email: Get it

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Hungry Sharks? How a Shark's Digestive System Works
Episode 84
Wednesday, 30 April, 2025

Spiral intestines! Curly poop! A shark that eats plants! And…turning your stomach inside out because you ate something dodgy?! In this episode we explore the ins and outs of a shark’s digestive system with animal physiologist Dr Samantha Leigh (@sea_science_sam), an expert in all things shark gut. We learn how a shark’s digestive system is designed for maximum efficiency, the different ways in which they ingest their hugely diverse diets, and how some sharks are able to survive weeks – sometimes months – without a meal. We also take a deep dive into Dr Leigh’s research on the bonnethead – a shark known to chow down on seagrass – and her recent SOSF-funded project, which is using the shark spiral intestine as a model to address one of our greatest environmental conundrums: the removal of microplastics. You can follow along with Dr Leigh’s work and lab here: https://samanthacleigh.weebly.com/ Shownotes: www.saveourseas.com/worldofsharks/podcast Find out more about the Save Our Seas Foundation by following: @saveourseasfoundation (Instagram and TikTok), @SaveOurSeas (X/Twitter) and @saveourseas.bsky.social (BlueSky).