WildView™

June 29, 2016

Sharks Have Personality

- as seen by -

Rhett Butler @Mongabay.com@mongabay

---

Sharks often get a bad rap as voracious killers. In reality, only a handful of species are considered dangerous to humans, and unprovoked attacks are exceedingly rare.

Part of the problem may be peoples’ tendency to generalize: the attributes of a great white (above) may be applied to all sharks, even harmless ones. But new research suggests that sharks are quite unique even among individuals within a single species. Yes, individual sharks have their own personalities.

A study carried out by scientists from Australia’s Macquarie University documented “personality traits” among Port Jackson sharks, a species found off southeastern Australia. They found each individual had a distinct level of “boldness” that remained consistent across four repeated trials. Bolder sharks showed higher stress tolerance when being handled.

Macquarie University professor Culum Brown, one of the study’s co-authors, said the findings “demonstrate that sharks are not just mindless machines.”

“Just like humans, each shark is an individual with its unique preferences and behaviors,” according to Brown.

Canon 5D Mark ii

---