Overview
- Researchers attached short-term dorsal‑fin camera tags to five juvenile whale sharks at Ningaloo Reef and retrieved about 24 hours of matched video and movement data for analysis.
- Combining the footage with a review of more than 100 papers, the team produced the largest behavioural catalogue to date, listing 36 distinct whale shark behaviours.
- The study identified 12 feeding behaviours — six of them not previously described — and documented tactics from slow gliding near the seafloor to active chases, leading authors to characterise the animals as ‘serial snackers.’
- Video showed whale sharks foraging throughout the water column, including down to roughly 70 metres, which challenges the prior assumption that they mainly feed at the surface.
- Authors emphasise the findings are based on a single juvenile aggregation, note the clamp-mounted tags released after ~24 hours leaving no permanent device, and call for broader deployments across sites and life stages to confirm ecological and conservation implications as prey patterns shift.