A hammerhead shark recently crashed down on Splinter City Disc Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. While waterspouts can pull fish from the sea and drop them over land, the culprit was a more common fish foe: an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) that had lost its lunch.
The unusual event took place on May 18 near the 11th hole of the wooded course near the ocean.
'It's not uncommon to see an osprey carrying something, but you take note because it's still really cool to see,' Jonathan Marlowe, who witnessed the hammerhead fall as he was playing disc golf, told Garden & Gun magazine. 'I thought it would be a random fish.'
Instead, it was a small, dead hammerhead shark, easily identifiable by its wide, mallet-shaped cranial structure known as a cephalofoil.
Also known as 'fish hawks,' ospreys are excellent aquatic hunters and the only raptors with feet designed to catch slippery prey. But they tend to feed on fish less than 12 inches (30 centimeters) long, and the hammerhead found on the golf course appears to be longer than a foot.
A hammerhead shark recently crashed down on Splinter City Disc Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. While waterspouts can pull fish from the sea and drop them over land, the culprit was a more common fish foe: an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) that had lost its lunch.
The unusual event took place on May 18 near the 11th hole of the wooded course near the ocean.
'It's not uncommon to see an osprey carrying something, but you take note because it's still really cool to see,' Jonathan Marlowe, who witnessed the hammerhead fall as he was playing disc golf, told Garden & Gun magazine. 'I thought it would be a random fish.'
Instead, it was a small, dead hammerhead shark, easily identifiable by its wide, mallet-shaped cranial structure known as a cephalofoil.
Also known as 'fish hawks,' ospreys are excellent aquatic hunters and the only raptors with feet designed to catch slippery prey. But they tend to feed on fish less than 12 inches (30 centimeters) long, and the hammerhead found on the golf course appears to be longer than a foot.
A hammerhead shark recently crashed down on Splinter City Disc Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. While waterspouts can pull fish from the sea and drop them over land, the culprit was a more common fish foe: an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) that had lost its lunch.
The unusual event took place on May 18 near the 11th hole of the wooded course near the ocean.
'It's not uncommon to see an osprey carrying something, but you take note because it's still really cool to see,' Jonathan Marlowe, who witnessed the hammerhead fall as he was playing disc golf, told Garden & Gun magazine. 'I thought it would be a random fish.'
Instead, it was a small, dead hammerhead shark, easily identifiable by its wide, mallet-shaped cranial structure known as a cephalofoil.
Also known as 'fish hawks,' ospreys are excellent aquatic hunters and the only raptors with feet designed to catch slippery prey. But they tend to feed on fish less than 12 inches (30 centimeters) long, and the hammerhead found on the golf course appears to be longer than a foot.
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