RESEARCH ARTICLE
A Rare Use of a Shark's Fin? Pectoral Fin Scooping of a Sharksucker from The Flank Area of a Female Blacktip Shark
Erich K. Ritter*
Shark Research Institute /
Florida Office, 5970 Osprey Place Pensacola, FL 32504, USA.
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 5
First Page: 57
Last Page: 59
Publisher Id: TOFISHSJ-5-57
DOI: 10.2174/1874401X01205010057
Article History:
Received Date: 29/02/2012Revision Received Date: 25/04/2012
Acceptance Date: 03/05/2012
Electronic publication date: 14/6/2012
Collection year: 2012
© 2012 Erich K. Ritter.
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
Sharks react in a variety of ways when sharksuckers attach to their bodies. Here, an unobserved behavior is described in which a blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, uses a pectoral fin in a scoop-like manner to specifically target the removal of a sharksucker, Echeneis naucrates, in the flank area. This coordinated use of the pectoral fin indicates an established bout in the shark's repertoire to remove sharksuckers. The anatomical flexibility and coordination of the fin is discussed; likewise, the potential origin and commonality within other species of the same family based on the rise of sharksuckers in the Eocene-Oligocene period. Special emphasis is placed on the value of a single observation of animal behavior in the field.
Keywords: Blacktip shark, Carcharhinus limbatus, irritation, pectoral fin, sharksucker.
