Great white sharks show serial killer behaviour

GREAT white sharks and serial killers share the same hunting instincts, scientists have found.

Researchers used methods copied from criminology to show great whites pick their targets in a highly focused fashion. Prolific killers such as Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, behave in much the same way.

The scientists adapted geographic profiling, a mathematical technique used to track down serial criminals, to investigate the hunting habits of great whites. They observed the location of 340 shark attacks and used the data to locate the sharks’ “anchor points”.