Tiger sharks are sort of generalist feeders. And by generalist, I mean they will pretty much eat anything. And by everything, I mean everything.
On the more natural side of things, tiger sharks eat throughout the food web. One study found at least 192 different prey items in the stomach contents of tiger sharks from small shrimps and bivalves to various large whale species including sperm and humpback whales. Land animals aren’t safe either. Eight species of terrestrial mammals, including a blue duiker (small antelope), unidentified bats, an African porcupine, common mole rat as well as domestic goats and dogs were also recovered in a study. Given this it shouldn’t be too shocking that birds also make it into tiger shark diets. Birds increased in dietary importance with tiger shark body size.
A wide variety of miscellaneous items can also be found in their stomachs including: “junk food (e.g. sweet and potato crisp packets), terrestrial/flood garbage (e.g. condoms, chamois leather, cigarettes), and butcher’s bones (e.g. bags of chicken gizzards, cut abattoir bones).” There are also records of people finding strange items in tiger shark stomachs hundreds of years ago, like a bible (1792), an iron anchor (1804) and an unexploded bomb (1917).
In an apparent first, recently scientists observed a tiger shark vomiting up a dead echidna whole off the coast of an Australian island.
