Nature
PUBLISHED
The not-so-sensual courting behavior of sharks has been captured on camera at an aquarium in Australia. The rare footage reveals how grey nurse sharks let each other know they’re interested, in a spectacle that, frankly, makes you kind of relieved not to be a shark.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Famous for their jaws, sharks don’t hold back in the teeth department when it comes to courting. They can be seen in the remarkable footage giving each other “love bites,” with lots of awkward jostling.
"It's like an underwater tango," said Patrick Nelson, Aquarist at SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium in a statement. "We've captured incredible footage of these magnificent creatures tumbling and twirling in the water. It's a rare and exciting sight that showcases their natural courting behaviours."
The SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium happens to house the largest population of grey nurse sharks (Carcharias taurus) in Australia. It’s well placed, then, to capture behaviors rarely seen from these animals, including their tough-love approach to courting.
The sharks are biting on each other’s fins while simultaneously twisting, clearly gearing up for the approaching mating season. The males will also flip the females, triggering a curious phenomenon that’s seen in a wide range of sharks, and making it easier for the males to fertilize their mate.
Shark flipping is a tactic that scientists have used to paralyze their predatory research subjects. Doing so brings on a state of “tonic immobility” resulting in an almost hypnotic state that renders the shark completely still for almost 15 minutes and can be done on a variety of sharks. This state of immobility is an incredible tool for scientific research, and skilled scuba divers have been recorded doing this to sharks as large as a tiger shark.
The shark flipping for Sydney’s grey nurse sharks will kick off in the spring. At present, the cartilaginous Love Island is currently anticipating romance between two females – Striker and Mary-Lou – and three males - Murdoch, Napoleon and Trio.
Baby sharks, incoming.
