Sharks can form social bonds

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Sharks can form social bonds

March 10, 2016 - 14:57
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Although scientists have long considered sharks to be loners, new research shows that sand tiger sharks exhibit behaviors typically seen in mammals and only rarely observed in fish.

Many species of sharks, including the lemon shark, are known to actively prefer to be social and live in groups or loose aggregations. Social interaction is thought to be important for the survival and success of juvenile lemon sharks.

Sand tiger sharks, top predators that live in coastal waters off the Eastern United States, have experienced drastic population declines over the past several decades. Understanding how these sharks move and interact could help biologists better conserve this species and determine how vulnerable they are to human activities. During summer, the sharks congregate in the shallow waters of the Delaware Bay but are highly migratory, traveling as far south as the Carolinas and Florida during the winter and early spring.

Finding out

Using acoustic tracking devices to trace the movements of over 200 individual animals in the open ocean for over a year, researchers found that sand tiger sharks form complex social networks. Initial data from two individual sharks showed they encountered nearly 200 other sand tigers throughout the year, as well as several individuals from other shark species.

Best friends

The researchers even identified a number of “best friends”. This status was afforded to those sharks that met the animals in question more than 20 times over a 12-month period. While this finding is quite surprising in itself, the researchers were even more intrigued by the seasonal variation of the sharks’ social behavior, which seemed to peak in the summer before dropping off in late winter and early spring.

These sharks exhibit what is known as fission-fusion social behavior, meaning that the number of sharks in a group and the individuals that are part of the group change by location and time of year. Groups would stay together for certain times of the year and fall apart during other times.

The researchers also found that sand tiger sharks re-encounter the same sharks throughout the year. Another surprise was a sudden lack of encounters with other sand tiger sharks in the late winter and early spring.