Sharks The Animal Answer Guide

74 Sharks: The Animal Answer Guide

A larger sawfish lays its rostrum across the rostrum of a smaller sawfish,

pinning it to the bottom and forcing it to give up a meal.

In White Sharks, size definitely matters, and small sharks defer to larger

animals. But when two sharks of about the same size interact around food,

they engage in several behavioral displays. Researchers have catalogued

these behaviors while watching sharks around floating baits near Dyer Is-

land, South Africa. One shark may follow another with its mouth open, and

the other will swim away; or two sharks will swim at one another until one

veers off in a White Shark version of “chicken.” Sometimes a shark will roll

on its side and slap its tail at another nearby animal, which may return the

tail slaps. Such “ritualized” fighting without actual physical contact is com-

mon throughout the animal kingdom and is considered a means of settling

disputes without injury. If neither animal retreats, biting may occur, and

some White Sharks bear obvious bite marks from such encounters. Non-

mating injuries, including missing fin parts, are not uncommon in many

species of sharks. It is likely such interactions within species are much more

common than has been formally documented.

Although battles among stingrays are seldom observed, we have ev-

idence that they will fight over food. An area in the Cayman Islands is

known as Stingray City because of the large numbers of Southern Sting-

rays that gather there to be fed by divers. This is a normally solitary spe-

cies, unaccustomed to associating with many members of its own species.

Handouts are not always available, and the rays jostle for position and

An approximately 3. 5 -m-long imma-
ture White Shark swims past a shark
cage at Dyer Island, South Africa.
This shark has apparent puncture-
like bite marks on its head (arrow at
left) that were most likely inflicted by
another shark. It also has elongate
scars of the same shape and dimen-
sion as the wire mesh from which
the cages are constructed (arrow
at right), suggesting that the shark
forcefully stuck its head inside a
cage at some time in the past. Photo
by Gene Helfman

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