The Behavior of the Bonnethead Shark, Sphyrna tiburo

Abstract

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Assortative interactions and leadership in a free-ranging population of juvenile lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris

“…After parturition, juvenile lemon sharks display high site fidelity in their first few years of life (Morrissey & Gruber 1993, Franks 2007, suggesting that social encounters between related individuals are highly probable. Finally, in accordance with previous studies on dominance hierarchies in captive sharks, we predicted that larger juvenile lemon sharks would lead groups more often than smaller conspecifics (Myrberg & Gruber 1974, Brown 2004.…”

“…1b) for several years and recognized it as an aggregation site for juvenile lemon sharks with as many as 25 individuals using the site at high tide (water depth: 0.2 to 0.9 m). When systematically observed, we found that they spent their time performing group behaviours, such as follow, circle or parallel (Myrberg & Gruber 1974). When not in groups, solitary sharks were observed to patrol the area, neither feeding nor interacting agonistically with each other (Guttridge 2009).…”

“…Leadership has been infrequently documented for captive sharks (Allee & Dickinson 1954, Myrberg & Gruber 1974, Brown 2004) and in all of these studies a hierarchy existed, with larger individuals taking up lead positions in groups of conspecifics. A series of binary choice experiments conducted with juvenile lemon sharks at the study site also found similar results, with smaller individuals (aged 0 to 1 yr) spending more time near a compartment with larger (aged 2 to 3 yr) sharks than size-matched conspecifics (Guttridge et al 2009a).…”

“…Patterns of association for sharks are difficult to reveal due to the concealing nature of their environment, making social interactions difficult to observe, let alone quantify (Heupel & Simpfendorfer 2005). Quantitative information regarding shark social interactions has only been collected in a handful of studies, predominantly on captive sharks (Allee & Dickinson 1954, Myrberg & Gruber 1974, Klimley 1983, Jacoby et al 2010. These studies revealed that social interactions between individuals occur and their frequency and duration seem to be determined by individual attributes, such as size or sex, with larger individuals occupying central positions in schools and lead positions in follow formations (Myrberg & Gruber 1974, Klimley 1983.…”

“…Quantitative information regarding shark social interactions has only been collected in a handful of studies, predominantly on captive sharks (Allee & Dickinson 1954, Myrberg & Gruber 1974, Klimley 1983, Jacoby et al 2010. These studies revealed that social interactions between individuals occur and their frequency and duration seem to be determined by individual attributes, such as size or sex, with larger individuals occupying central positions in schools and lead positions in follow formations (Myrberg & Gruber 1974, Klimley 1983. Recently, Guttridge et al (2009a) experimented with captive subjects under semi-controlled conditions to investigate the social preferences of juvenile lemon shark Negaprion brevirostris.…”