If there is one thing more terrifying than a white shark ( popularly known as a expectant white ) it would have to be a assemblage of these apex predators . fortuitously for sea swimmers , white sharks are unremarkably the ultimate loners , roaming the seas in splendid isolation . Yet when they do come together , Carcharodon carchariasspend more time with sure individuals than others , something which in mammalian we might regard as indicating friendly relationship web , although the biologists who observed this pattern doubt that is what is depart on here .
Every year South Australia’sNeptune Islandsabound with seals and snowy sharks gather to the feast , hosting perchance thegreatest concentrationof the species in the universe . Even when seal number miss , there are still enough of them to maintain a strong shark presence .
Dr Charlie Huveneersof Flinders University helped photograph 282 of these shark , noting their law of proximity to each other , over a point of 4.5 class . InBehavioral Ecology and Sociobiology , Huveneers and co - authors report certain shark were often take care at the same placement on the same day as each other , even years aside .
“ Rather than just being around randomly , the sharks form four clear-cut communities , which showed that some sharks were more likely to use the site simultaneously than expected by chance,”saidsenior authorDr Stephan Leuof Macquarie University .
As true apex vulture , big white sharks have nothing to dread but humanity and each other , but this week’sphotographsof the inauspicious “ Vimy ” demonstrate there are skillful reasons for them to avoid with child members of their own species .
Huveneers ruled out some obvious explanations to IFLScience . “ shark in general and bloodless shark in special are not known to play or form bonds in the stock import of the full term , ” he said . Unlike killer whale or dolphins , there is no grounds of them herding prey together .
The sample Huveneers investigated was almost two - thirds male person , which he told IFLScience shine the universe in these waters for most of the year , but in tardy fall or other winter , female can outnumber the males .
Lest anyone is suppose of theshark support groupfromFinding Nemo , Huveneers get empty the association are very loose , and may not involve a penchant for their fellows at all . alternatively , if particular environmental condition pull certain individuals , while others are draw elsewhere , patent associations will emerge . However , we do n’t fuck what these penchant might be .
Although the finding were particularly surprising for white sharks , Huveneers evidence IFLScience : “ We are more and more seeing such non - random associations in a phone number of species including lemon shark and small - spot catsharks . ” in the first place this year persistent social relationshipswere identified in manta beam of light , who wish shark are gristly fish .
