Govind Tekale
Scientists have captured the first-ever footage of endangered leopard sharks mating in the wild, documenting a rare “threesome” that could help save the species from extinction.
Marine biologist Hugo Lassauce from the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) filmed the unexpected event on July 12, 2024, while diving near Nouméa, New Caledonia. The footage shows two male sharks taking turns mating with a single female shark, an observation now published in the Journal of Ethology.
“It’s rare to witness sharks mating in the wild, but to see it with an endangered species – and film the event – was so exciting that we just started cheering,” said Lassauce, who waited patiently in the water for about an hour before the action began.
The three Indo-Pacific leopard sharks, each measuring about 2.3 meters (7.6 feet) in length, were first spotted on the seafloor. Both males held onto the female’s pectoral fins with their mouths while she occasionally struggled to free herself. When the mating finally began, it happened quickly – the first male mated with the female for 63 seconds, followed by the second male for 47 seconds.
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After the brief encounters, both exhausted males lay motionless on the seafloor while the female swam away.
Also known as zebra sharks (Stegostoma tigrinum), leopard sharks are found across the Indo-West Pacific region from Africa’s east coast to the Pacific Islands, including Australia. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists them as endangered, with populations declining due to overfishing and habitat destruction.
Until now, leopard sharks had been studied mainly in captivity, with little known about their wild mating habits. Dr. Christine Dudgeon, a UniSC senior research fellow who has studied these sharks for two decades and co-authored the paper, called the sequential involvement of two males “surprising and fascinating.”
“From a genetic diversity perspective, we want to find out how many fathers contribute to the batches of eggs laid each year by females,” Dudgeon explained.
The observation has significant conservation implications. First, it confirms the area near Nouméa as a critical mating habitat requiring protection. Second, it provides valuable information for artificial insemination efforts and rewilding programs already underway in several countries, including Australia.
Emily Humble, a research fellow in conservation genomics at the University of Edinburgh who wasn’t involved in the study, noted that leopard sharks have interesting reproductive flexibility. “Not only can females reproduce without males through parthenogenesis, but they also appear to mate with multiple partners,” she said.
The discovery is part of the ReShark international conservation initiative, which breeds leopard sharks in accredited aquariums and transfers eggs to nurseries in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, where they’re raised and released to repopulate their native habitats.Lassauce plans to continue researching egg-laying habitats and tracking newly hatched wild leopard sharks to further support conservation efforts for this endangered species.
