[imagesource: Facebook / Jacques Oosthuizen]

Jacques Oosthuizen posted a fascinating video of a tiger shark trying to sink its teeth into a turtle off the south coast in KwaZulu-Natal.

“Tiger shark vs turtle off Hibberdene yesterday,” he captioned the video, referring to Sunday, which is now receiving a fair amount of attention.

In the video, you can see the shark moving underneath the turtle to try and flip it over, but the turtle’s will to survive is strong, remaining on its back, shell down to stop the shark from getting to its juicy flesh.

The turtle’s large eyes don’t do it any favours in terms of making it look like things are under control:

If the end of that video is anything to go by, it looks like the turtle won.

Per IOL, the video seems to have sparked a debate about whether or not to intervene.

Tarryn Wagner thought it was interesting, commenting:

“It looks like Timothy escaped thank goodness. To all those people that would have intervened… It’s nature! FYI – Animals are slaughtered and killed for the meat you purchase daily, what makes this any different?”

On the other side of the debate, Werner Lang commented:

“Help the freakin turtle, yes I know its nature, yes, it is not natural for them to mistake plastic for food… that’s why they are endangered because of man so man must fix/help where they can.”

Earlier this month, uShaka Sea World took in an adult loggerhead turtle for rehabilitation after it was found with its front flippers bitten off by a tiger shark.

Another IOL report has more from uShaka Sea World’s Ann Kunz:

She said members of a local dive charter, Mokarran Diving, who were at sea on Aliwal Shoal, witnessed the tiger shark turning around and biting her second flipper after noticing some abnormal behaviour in the water.

On arrival, the turtle, now named Jina, was assessed by the resident veterinarian at the South African Association for Marine Biological Research and was found not to be bleeding heavily and appeared to be in good condition other than the injuries to her flippers.

The turtle was given pain relief and allowed to rest, and has since been named Jina.

The uShaka team said they would be keeping a close eye on Jina until she showed sure signs of recovery.

[sources:iol&iol]