• Source:JND
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In a historic breakthrough for oceanography, researchers filmed what they believed to be the world's first recorded shark threesome. The unusual incident involved two male leopard sharks taking turns mating with a female in the Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand. 

The stunning video was captured by Dr Hugo Lassauce, an ecologist and marine biologist with Noumea's Aquarium des Lagons. Lassauce was approximately 15 kilometers from the coast of New Caledonia as part of an annual monitoring program when he saw three large sharks lying on the seafloor.

“I waited an hour, freezing in the water, but finally they started swimming up,” Lassauce recalled. What followed was a surprising display: two males, each measuring around 2.3 meters, copulated with the same female one after the other. The first mating lasted 63 seconds, the second 47.

Then the males were so exhausted that they stretched out limp on the ocean floor, as the female swam actively away. "To hold a female when she is fighting to escape, and to copulate during a swim, is to exhaust the entire energy of the male," Lassauce said.

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Rare Sight In Wild

The sharks that were filmed were not unfamiliar to the location. Both the males had previously been recognised as past visitors going back to 2018, emphasizing the species' site fidelity to familiar aggregation areas. Leopard sharks (Stegostomatigrinum), which occur in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, are noted as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) because of habitat loss and population reduction.

Shark mating itself occurs very seldom in the wild, and so this movie is all the more important. "It's extremely unusual to see sharks mate in the wild, but to see it with an endangered species,  and capture it on camera, was so thrilling that we just started clapping," Lassauce said.

Conservation Value Of Discovery

The scientific implications are far-reaching. Christine Dudgeon, a senior research fellow at the University of the Sunshine Coast and co-author on the study, said the sequential participation by two males was "surprising and fascinating." She said the significance of knowing how many males contribute genetically to egg batches yearly could have important implications for reproductive success and species recovery.

Emily Humble, a conservation genomics scientist at the University of Edinburgh and not involved in the research, referred to the sighting as a "rare observation" that tells us a lot about the reproductive tactics of leopard sharks.

Such direct observation, according to Lassauce, is absolutely vital for conservation activities. The research will not only augment the scientific record, but it could also inform artificial insemination procedures aimed at assisting the maintenance of endangered populations of sharks through schemes such as ReShark.

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"This particular observation provides essential information on reproduction behaviour," said Lassauce, "and will enable fine-tuning of conservation efforts for this incredible species."