We divers rely on social networks like SDTN to maintain connections with one another; we also use telephones, email, and other methods of communication. Despite their lack of modern technology or even old-fashioned methods like dive slates or hand signals, Lemon Sharks maintain extensive social networks and learn as they interact with other members of their species. Recently, researchers have brought new information on this fascinating subject to light. Let’s take a look.
Sharks as Social Beings
At the Bimini Biological Field station located in the Bimini Islands close to the Bahamas, a group of scientists is working to increase human knowledge about the lives of some of the ocean’s most misunderstood predators. During the course of their extensive studies, they’ve uncovered new information about how sharks are able to transfer knowledge to and stay in touch with other sharks.
Says Tristan Guttridge, who is one of the station’s behavioral ecologists, these sharks basically have friends, or individuals they prefer to follow and interact with socially. Social living is not at all uncommon within the animal kingdom, and scientists have long understood that social interaction between animals provides some important evolutionary advantages. For example, animals that stick together, be it in a herd, a troupe, a pod, or a school, have higher survival rates and better opportunities to find food compared with animals that tend to live as loners.
When sharks such as the lemon sharks the Bimini researchers are focusing on live in social groups, they are referred to as “shivers.” A shiver of sharks is basically comparable to a pack of wolves or a troupe of chimpanzees, or perhaps a flock of birds. And like these animals, lemon sharks prefer the company of others, even when the need to hunt or protect themselves is eliminated.
During the course of experiments, Guttridge and his colleagues carefully captured a group of 42 juvenile lemon sharks and placed them into square confinement areas or test pens 10 meters square. They placed varying number of sharks into the outer pens and a single shark into the center pen. The sharks were then provided with the opportunity to interact with their species or stay by themselves. The sharks given the opportunity to be alone always chose to stick as close to other sharks as possible.
Many sharks enjoy aggregating with others; lemon sharks though, have some interesting traits when it comes to making and maintaining friendships with others. They prefer to be with sharks about the same size as themselves, and they also teach their friends new skills. When scientists trained one group of lemon sharks to bump a target for a food reward, then paired them with sharks that had not been trained to use the target, the newbies quickly picked up on the behavior by watching their friends, learning how to get the food rewards much faster than sharks the scientists trained on their own.
We often see sharks as creatures to be feared; and while it’s true that maintaining a healthy respect for the animals helps divers and other ocean sports enthusiasts stay accident-free, it’s also clear that sharks are much more than the dull-witted killing machines they’re sometimes made out to be.