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

Pierre Labourgade, Laurent Ballesta, Charlie Huveneers, Yannis Papastamatiou, Johann Mourier

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Abstract

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.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere01755
Pages (from-to)1-4
Number of pages4
Journal Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America
Volume101
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2020

Bibliographical note

These photographs illustrate the article “Heterospecific foraging associations between reef-associated sharks: first evidence of kleptoparasitism in sharks” by Pierre Labourgade, Laurent Ballesta, Charlie Huveneers, Yannis Papastamatiou, and Johann Mourier published in Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3117.

Keywords

  • Social predation
  • shark
  • heterospecific
  • Foraging
  • reef shark
  • Kleptoparasitism
  • whitetip reef sharks
  • grey reef sharks
  • marine predators

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