Ocean's heist: A tiger shark snatches a diver's phone, only to return it later (video).

Those who dive in the ocean understand the associated risks: starting with equipment checks and ending with weather conditions, as well as the mysteries that lie beneath the water's surface. However, not every diver considers the possibility that a tiger shark might steal their phone. Yet, this can indeed happen, as reported by IFLScience.

Diver David Finch was diving at Tiger Beach on the western coast of Grand Bahama with a group when he noticed that one of the tiger sharks, a female named Jitterbug, was curiously eyeing his phone. He decided to let her examine the gadget—sharks don’t have hands, so she used her mouth to inspect the phone and ended up swallowing it. Moments later, the predator concluded that the gadget wasn’t food and spat it back out. This occurred several times.

Researchers note that tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) got their name due to the stripes on the backs of young individuals. However, as the sharks mature, these stripes begin to fade and eventually almost disappear.

Tiger sharks are widely distributed in tropical and temperate waters around the globe and typically grow to an impressive length of 3-4 meters, with weights reaching around 386-635 kilograms. However, particularly large specimens have been known to reach about 6 meters in length, with weights of up to 861 kilograms. This makes tiger sharks the fourth largest shark species and the second largest predatory shark species after the great white shark.

In the footage, you can see the female Jitterbug taking the phone into her mouth, which continues to record, before swallowing it and then spitting it back out. The video provides a clear view of what’s inside the shark's mouth, as well as showing her gills from the inside.

Tiger sharks are also known for being aggressive predators with a varied diet—observations show that some even hunt echidnas. It is known that members of this species can consume anything from sea turtles and snakes to other fish, birds, and even some marine mammals. There have even been instances of cannibalism where adult tiger sharks have eaten younger ones.

Today, tiger sharks are classified as a species "near threatened," and there are several reasons for this: the liver of these predators contains a high amount of vitamin A, which is used to produce vitamin oil. Tiger sharks are also often caught as bycatch in trawl fishing and in relatively small numbers during tuna fishing.