RESEARCH ARTICLE
Putative Male – Male Agonistic Behaviour in Free-Living Zebra Sharks, Stegostoma fasciatum
Juerg M. Brunnschweiler 1, *, Harold L. Pratt, Jr. 2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 1
First Page: 23
Last Page: 27
Publisher Id: TOFISHSJ-1-23
DOI: 10.2174/1874401X00801010023
Article History:
Received Date: 28/04/2008Revision Received Date: 12/05/2008
Acceptance Date: 20/05/2008
Electronic publication date: 12/9/2008
Collection year: 2008
© 2008 Brunnschweiler and Pratt
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Abstract: We analysed digital still photographs of two interacting free-living male zebra sharks. The recorded behaviours are similar in appearance to some male – female courtship and mating patterns in elasmobranchs and several of the positions are similar to or resemble reproductive behaviours known from other species. We discuss two possible hypotheses that may explain the interaction, sexual behaviour and an agonistic behaviour. We reject the same-sex hypothesis and propose that the event was of agonistic nature.
Keywords: Agonistic behaviour, Elasmobranch, Homosexual, Male-male mating, Mating behaviour, Pectoral bite, Shark, Sexual behaviour, Stegostoma fasciatum, Zebra shark.
