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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Fish Sci.
Sec. Elasmobranch Science
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frish.2025.1520995
This article is part of the Research Topic Women in Elasmobranch Science View all 3 articles
Novel observations of an oceanic whitetip and tiger shark scavenging event
Provisionally accepted- 1 Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Kaneohe, United States
- 2 Hawaiian Adventures Kona, 247 Kealakehe Pkwy, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740, United States
- 3 Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Aquatic Resources, Protected Species Program (PSP), 1151 Punchbowl Street,, Honolulu, HI 96813-3088, United States
- 4 Kaimana Ocean Safari, 74-0425 Kealakehe Pkwy,, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740, United States
Oceanic whitetip sharks, Carcharhinus longimanus, are known to be common scavengers, however observations of C. longimanus scavenging events are extremely rare due to their classification as an oceanic pelagic species, typically solitary in nature. On 9 April 2024, over 8.5 hours, at least nine C.longimanus were observed scavenging from a heavily degraded carcass off the coast of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, USA. Five tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) were also observed scavenging on the same carcass. Simultaneous feeding within and between species occurred, however, no agonistic or aggressive interactions were observed. Although a small snapshot, this stochastic event sheds new light on trophic relationships and social interactions among aquatic apex predators that do not normally overlap in space and time.
Keywords: oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus), Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), scavenging, carcass, feeding aggregation
Received: 01 Nov 2024; Accepted: 02 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Scott, Miller, Stapleton and Grant. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Molly Scott, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Kaneohe, United States
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