MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Did you know great white sharks actually socialize with each other?
A team from Florida International University studied the sharks around Mexico’s Guadalupe Island.
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The team from FIU found out the sharks tend to stick together when patrolling or hunting for food, like stopping by to check out the seal colonies around the island.
“Most associations were short, but there were sharks where we found considerably longer associations, much more likely to be social associations,” said Yannis Papastamatiou, lead author of the study. “Seventy minutes is a long time to be swimming around with another white shark.”
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A total of six sharks— three males and three females — were tagged and monitored over a four-year period. According to the data, the sharks preferred to be in groups with members of the same sex.
“The important question we still have to answer is what’s the reason for being social for these sharks? We still don’t know, but it’s likely they may stay in proximity of other individuals in case those individuals are successful in killing large prey,” Papastamatiou said. “They aren’t working together but being social could be a way to share information.”
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