First recorded group mating in wild leopard sharks off New Caledonia

Marine biologists have captured what they say is the first documented instance of group mating in wild leopard sharks, recording two males mating sequentially with a single female off New Caledonia late last year. The encounter was filmed at Abore Reef, about 15 kilometres off Nouméa, by University of the Sunshine Coast researcher Hugo Lassauce and is described in a paper published in the Journal of Ethology.

Lassauce, who has been conducting regular snorkel surveys of the reef for roughly a year as part of a monitoring program, said he arrived at an aggregation of sharks to find a female on the sand with two males grasping her pectoral fins. Accounts differ on the survey cadence, with reports variously describing his fieldwork as weekly or daily, but all say he kept the boat away to avoid disturbing the animals and waited in the water until the animals began rising. He estimated the lead-up lasted about 90 minutes while the animals remained nearly motionless on the seafloor.

When mating occurred, each male took a turn. The first mating lasted 63 seconds and the second 47 seconds, a combined interval of about 110 seconds. Afterward, the two males appeared exhausted and lay...