Heterospecific Foraging Associations Between Reef-Associated Sharks: First Evidence of Kleptoparasitism in Sharks

Social predation allows groups of predators to search for, pursue, and capture prey with greater efficiency than using solitary hunting. During ~3,000 hours of underwater observations of nocturnal shark foraging activity, we report for the first time a heterospecific association between two shark species, with the nature of the interaction ranging from commensalism to kleptoparasitism and mutualism. These foraging associations with whitetip reef sharks offer grey reef sharks the opportunity to access different types of prey and increase their predation success. These findings add more evidence that heterospecific social associations may exist across animal groups including large marine predators.