See what it looks like to be swallowed alive by a tiger shark

The fear of being eaten by a shark has come alive in a new video.

A tiger shark, named Jitterbug, accidently swallowed an iPhone during a feeding part of a tourism excursion in the Bahamas, taking the device on a journey through its inner workings.

As the phone floats through the tiger shark, specifically the folds of its digestive tract's ghostly pale white skin, the inner side of its gills can be seen pulsing along the walls of its pharynx.

But Jitterbug coughed the mobile the iPhone, sealed in a waterproof case, before ot went  beyond this last region of the oral cavity into muscles that control the esophagus.

In the short clip,  Jitterbug quickly figures out that the glassy and metallic Apple device is not food, quickly letting it fall to the ocean floor.

The iPhone belonged to the captain of the excursion, who was amazed that his iPhone camera managed to stay rolling, collecting incredible footage from inside Jitterbug's mouth.

Marine scientists describe the movements seen in the interior of this tiger shark's mouth as 'buccal pumping,' after the creature's buccal cheek muscles.

The 'buccal pumping,' according to an explainer by the University of Hawaii, 'is what fish use to move water over their gills when they are not swimming.'

When swimming rapidly enough, tiger sharks like Jitterbug also use a technique called 'ram ventilation' to move water over their gills, extracting oxygen from the water to breathe. 

'When swimming fast, fish like sharks and tunas open both their mouths and gill openings to let water pass continuously through their gills,' the university noted. 

As Jitterbug spat out the phone, her rows of serrated teeth can be seen, which are more flat on tiger sharks than other species and have distinct primary and secondary serrations that can be used to tell loose shark teeth apart by species.

The iPhone belonged to Dave Finch, who was working with Texas-based undersea photographer Ken Kiefer on the shark tour.

'This devious girl,' as Kiefer explained in a Facebook post, 'grabbed Finch’s camera and was trying to get some selfies.'  

'I was watching the shark chew on the housing of the phone,' Kiefer continued. 'I figured the phone was a gone,' he added, 'and then saw [Jitterbug] spit it out.' 

'She grabbed it. Then chewed, dropped, grabbed again and dropped,' he said.

'In the top pic you can see Finch in the reflection of his dome,' Kiefer said. 

'And in the lower pic Jitterbug looks like she's embarrassed a little about being caught being mischievous.'

Staff with Dolphin Dream Team, which organizes tours to Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, have named several of the site's recurring aquatic visitors, including the tiger sharks Jitterbug, Emma and Natalie, 'each with their own personality.'

'Passengers and crew unite to keep tabs on who is where and when,' Dolphin Dream Team explained of their work helping to monitor Jitterbug and the other tiger sharks in the region.

'Being able to see the subtle differences in skin patterns or scars is for very trained eyes,' the tour group continued. 'We can learn migratory patterns. We can learn if [a] shark is still alive.' 

Despite their prevalence in popular film and TV, Shark attacks — according to Dr Robert Latour, a professor of marine science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science — are quite rare.

'An individual is far more likely to be struck by lightning than to be bitten by a shark,' as Dr Latour told CBS News last year.

The marine scientist cited data from the University of Florida showing that in 2022, there were 57 unprovoked bites worldwide, a significantly lower figure than the 10-year average of 74 unprovoked bites annually. 

But the US tops the charts when it comes to unprovoked shark bites, accounting for about 72 percent of those recorded worldwide in 2022.

And, of those, Florida accounted for nearly 40 percent of the unprovoked attacks in the country.

Australia came in second in terms of unprovoked shark bites in 2022, representing nearly 16 percent of the year's total.

But the commonwealth nation did not report any shark-related fatalities.

If you do ever find yourself (or your phone) in a dangerous encounter with a shark, Dr Latour says there are best practices to survive the ordeal.

'The best approach is to stay calm and defend yourself,' he siad. 'Maintain eye contact with the shark and use a hard object or your hands to jab the nose, gills, and eyes.' 

'If you see the shark prior to an attack,' Dr Latour continued, 'position yourself to avoid a bite to the neck or face.' 

It was important, he emphasized, not to thrash and flee, behaviors that could signal to a shark that you are wounded prey: 'Work toward getting out of the water as soon as possible, but do not turn your back and swim,' he advised.