Great White Shark Filmed Breaching at Night—A First

Unprecedented footage captures a great white shark off the coast of South Africa breaching the water's surface to snare a seal during nocturnal hunting.

Although seals are a common meal for great white sharks, under the cover of darkness, one might expect the marine mammals to catch a break. Dramatic new footage, however, proves great whites sometimes fancy a midnight snack.

The video shows a 13-foot (4-meter) shark launching itself from the water to snare a seal at the surface—the first time such "breach feeding" has been documented at night.

The footage appears in Sharkville, which aired July 25 on the National Geographic Channel. (National Geographic News and the National Geographic Channel are both a part of the National Geographic Society.)

(Read: How the Ultimate Shark Photo Went Viral.)

South African marine biologist Ryan Johnson and his team got the shot in a section of

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