Nobody likes to show up to their favorite dinner spot to eat alone, including great white sharks.
According to a new joint study by researchers from Macquarie University, Flinders University and the Fox Shark Research Foundation, great white sharks regroup with the same sharks when they make their annual return to feeding grounds in the Neptune Islands in the Great Australian Bight. This behavior of interacting with the same sharks was observed year after year.
The four-year study cataloged nearly 300 white sharks using photos taken from the area, which because of a nearby seal nursery had become a vital feeding ground for young male sharks. Through the images they were able to identify individual sharks and, to their surprise, found that many were seen in proximity to specific others far more often than chance would determine.
“Rather than just being around randomly, the sharks formed four distinct communities, which showed that some sharks were more likely to use the site simultaneously than expected by chance,” says Dr Leu. “The numbers varied across time, and we suggest that sex-dependent patterns of visitation at the Neptune Islands drive the observed community structure.”
