Overview
- Researchers tracked 184 individually identified bull sharks over six years in Fiji’s Shark Reef Marine Reserve.
- They quantified contacts within one body length and coded finer behaviors such as following and parallel swimming.
- Sharks repeatedly associated with preferred partners, tending to mix with similar-sized individuals rather than at random.
- Adults formed the core of the network, males logged more overall contacts, and both sexes more often associated near females.
- The study, published in Animal Behaviour, is guiding early collaboration between the Fiji Shark Lab and the Fisheries Ministry, with authors urging further work on function and broader applicability.