Male sharks grip females with teeth during sex: scientists
What a fishy fetish.
A study, published in the Environmental Biology of Fishes on Dec. 4, has revealed that male sharks embrace their romantic partners by diving their teeth into a fin to begin fornication.
Footage, captured by Australia’s Wolf Rock Dive Centre, revealed injuries inflicted by male sharks when they sink their teeth into female sharks while they mate.
Male sharks bite their female partners to help with positioning during sex. Wolf Rock Dive Centre
The bites are helping scientists get a better understanding of sharks’ kinky sex lives.
Intercourse for the cold-blooded beasts involves them pressing their bellies together while the male penetrates the female.
However, when sharks are different sizes, the insert process can be a bit more difficult, causing the male shark to violently bite down on the fins or gills of their mate to hold them in place.
In some cases, the females aren’t afraid to bite back during sexual intercourse.
Researchers analyzed “mating wounds” sustained by sand tiger sharks because these species spend most of their time as solitary hunters who mate out at sea. However, their loner lifestyle prevents scientists from learning about the shark’s sex life.
The bites leave marks on their skin but heal quickly. Wyffels et al. 2024
Intercourse for sharks involves them pressing their bellies together while the male penetrates the female. Wyffels et al. 2024
Dr. Jennifer Wyffels, the lead author of the published study from the University of Delaware, understands sharks’ sexual behavior to hold their partner in place for penetration.
“Sharks and rays use their mouths to hold and position females and, therefore, mating wounds are common during the reproductive season,” Dr. Wyffels told LiveScience.
Her team observed a group of sand tiger sharks at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada Marine Science Center and noticed how the males aggressively marked female sharks.
Researchers developed a scale for describing the severity and healing stages of mating wounds. The scale ranges from fresh, open stage 1 wounds to stage 4 wounds, which have started to scar over.
The chart analyzes the number of wounds female and male sharks receive from intercourse. Wyffels et al. 2024
Researchers developed a scale for describing the severity and healing stages of mating wounds. Wolf Rock Dive Centre
Some female sharks bite their partners back. Wolf Rock Dive Centre
The deepest injuries cut through the female’s skin down to the muscle but were quick to heal, completely closing in 22 days.
Wyffels’ team analyzed 2,876 pictures of 686 individual sand tiger sharks, from the Spot A Shark USA database, taken between 2015 and 2020.
The images revealed that stage 1 wounds increased in May, suggesting that is the peak of the breeding season. However, by July, the number of flesh wounds had decreased, indicating sharks were mating less or doing it without biting each other.
Researchers noted that North Carolina had a high population of horny sand tiger sharks, often finding them breeding there.
“The presence of stages 1 and 2 mating wounds on sand tiger sharks in North Carolina suggests the area is used for mating, while females with stages 3 and 4 mating wounds provide evidence that the area also serves as gestation habitat for this species,” researchers published in Environmental Biology of Fishes.
