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Scientists have unlocked the secret sex lives ofsharksoff North Carolina by study ghastly snack wounds inflicted during the act .
Shark sex is not for the wispy - hearted , require them to crusade their bellies together while the male penetrate the female . This happens swiftly for small shark , but large coinage are less nimble and struggle to moderate the location , so the male often grasps the female with his teeth , leaving bloody wounds on her soundbox in the appendage .
A sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus) in the Indian Ocean.
Many male do n’t leave unscathed either . Some females burn back during sex , according to a new subject field , published Dec. 4 in the journalEnvironmental Biology of Fishes .
By examining pungency wounds in male and female shark , research worker can pinpoint the timing and location of mating action that remains largely hidden in the wild .
" observation of pairing for any shark or ray species are very rare so we used pairing wounds as collateral grounds for reproductive behavior , " report lede authorJennifer Wyffels , a research worker at Ripley ’s Aquariums and the University of Delaware , told Live Science in an email . " Sharks and rays use their mouths to hold and position females and therefore , mating wounds are common during the generative time of year . "
An aquarium-housed sand tiger shark female with mating wounds from attempted copulation on June 22, 2020. Number in top left corner represents the days post-injury.
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But detailed observations of mating wound are scarce in the scientific literature , so researcher know little about this aspect of shark replica , Wyffels read .
For the study , Wyffel and confrere test mating wounds in sand tiger shark ( Carcharias taurus ) — acritically endangered speciesthat grows up to 10 feet ( 3 meters ) long and inhabit coastal areas worldwide .
The researchers first observed a grouping of sand tiger sharks in an aquarium , where they witnessed pairing activity that resulted in severe accidental injury to a female person . The deepest wound cut through the female ’s hide and exposed the underlying muscleman , but the wound was quick to bring around , the researchers noted in the study .
Next , based on these data , the researchers established a scale leaf from 1 to 4 to distinguish the severity and healing stages of shark mating wound — with 1 describing saucy wound , 2 and 3 describe medium stage of healing , and 4 describing initiation of scarring .
The team then give this healing plate to depiction of sand tiger sharks from the databaseSpot A Shark U.S.A. , which encourages citizen scientists to resign look-alike ofC.taurussnapped along the Northwest Atlantic coast . In aggregate , the research worker analyzed 2,876 exposure of 686 sand Panthera tigris sharks taken between 2005 and 2020 off the coast of North Carolina .
The images revealed that coastal North Carolina is a hot spot for backbone tiger shark sex .
The researchers detect an increment in degree 1 wound in late May , marking the start of a voracious sexual union season in the part . The vertex point off in July , indicate that mating is less frequent and/or less fast-growing then , according to the bailiwick .
" By mid to late summer , mating has cease found on the deficiency of stage 1 and 2 conjugation wound on female , " the researchers wrote in the study .
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But females stuck around after the final stage of the mating time of year , photographs taken in late summer revealed . Many of these remaining females had stage 3 and 4 combat injury , indicate that the region is both a mating home ground and a gestation period habitat for fraught females , accord to the study .
The results unveil little - get it on expression of shark reproduction , but they also confirm that shark have remarkably degenerate healing rate . anecdotic reports have long advise that sharks can subsist extreme injuries andemerge with fiddling to no scarring , but observation are rare . Here , the recondite wounding of the aquarium female person conclude after just 22 solar day , and scarring finished 85 day post harm , the study noted .
" By immix marine museum and wild backbone tiger shark wound healing observations , we were able to describe wounding stage and a timeline for healing for this species , " Wyffels said . " This information was used to deduct the mating time of year for wild Baroness Dudevant Panthera tigris sharks . "
