Do sharks have friends?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Since sharks live DEEP under the ocean, we aren’t sure!
Enter Natasha Marosi and team from the University of Exeter.
They performed nearly five-HUNDRED dives in Fiji to observe about two-hundred bull sharks. They tracked social behaviors, like sticking together or following one another.
And? Both female and male sharks actually preferred to socialize with females. Sharks between fourteen and thirty years old were the most socially connected. Younger and older sharks? Not so much. In fact, older sharks tended to prefer solitude.
Understanding shark’s social lives helps inform conservation efforts.
So spread the word… sharks are friends! Just not with little clown fish…
Reference: Marosi, N. D., Ellis, S., Jacoby, D. M. P., Brunnschweiler, J. M. & Croft, D. P. Rolling in the deep: drivers of social preferences and social interactions within a bull shark aggregation in Fiji. Animal Behaviour 123511 (2026) doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2026.123511.