Researchers found that white sharks would often turn up at cage diving sites with the same individuals time and time again. While the sharks may not be cooperating, they can still potentially benefit by hanging out with each other.įurther studies on white shark behavior in Australia took this a step further. The biologists suggested that if one shark killed a marine mammal, other, nearby sharks would register this information and quickly approach the site of the kill, perhaps hoping to eat from the remains of the prey. In 2001, researchers in California published a paper describing how white sharks patrolling a seal colony at Año Nuevo Island would remain within “eavesdropping” distance of each other. Sharks generally hunt by patrolling the waters adjacent to seal colonies and ambush seals at the surface. White sharks travel to seal colonies during the seal’s breeding seasons in the summer and fall. Yannis Papastamatiou, CC BY-ND Hints of a social shark Great white sharks were historically seen as individualistic hunters, but previous research hinted at social behaviors. But under the right conditions, this type of basic social interaction can increase the success of both animals’ hunting. The first predator wasn’t purposefully alerting the second predator to the presence of a meal. The sharing of information – the location of prey – in this example is inadvertent. An animal may simply decide to stay in close proximity to another individual because it has learned that if its “colleague” locates some prey, its own chances of getting a meal increase. But social behavior can be much simpler than that. When people think of social predators, most probably picture a pack of wolves hunting in an organized, cooperative group. While nearly all animals show some degree of sociality – when they mate, for example – social behaviors can range from solitary snow leopards to highly social ant colonies. What makes a social animal?Ī social animal is one that interacts and spends time with other individuals of the same species. Some creatures, like ants, form highly complex social systems based around cooperation, but there are many levels of social behavior. Using state of the art technology, we have been able to gain a better understanding of the secret social lives of these top predators. Since 2014, my colleagues and I have visited the beautiful Guadalupe Island off the coast of Mexico to try to find out. For the last 22 years, my research has focused on sharks.īiologists have long known that some sharks – like hammerheads – are social creatures, but whether great white sharks interact with each other while hunting, and if so, how, is still a mystery. I am a marine biologist and study the behavior of predators. The schooling hammerhead sharks above my head were a striking example of shark social groups, a topic that has not been the subject of much exploration. When most people think of sharks, they don’t think of them as social creatures. Sitting anchored to the rocky reef 70 feet (21 meters) below the surface of the ocean, hundreds of scalloped hammerhead sharks swam above me in unison, moving as if one. Yannis Papastamatiou, Florida International University Great white sharks are not normally thought of as social creatures.
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