Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Transoceanic Migration, Spatial Dynamics, and Population Linkages of White Sharks

2005; American Association for the Advancement of Science; Volume: 310; Issue: 5745 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1126/science.1114898

1095-9203

Ramón Bonfil, Michael A. Meÿer, Michael C. Scholl, Ryan Johnson, Shannon M. O’Brien, Herman Oosthuizen, Stephan Swanson, Deon Kotze, Michael J. Paterson,

Marine animal studies overview

The large-scale spatial dynamics and population structure of marine top predators are poorly known. We present electronic tag and photographic identification data showing a complex suite of behavioral patterns in white sharks. These include coastal return migrations and the fastest known transoceanic return migration among swimming fauna, which provide direct evidence of a link between widely separated populations in South Africa and Australia. Transoceanic return migration involved a return to the original capture location, dives to depths of 980 meters, and the tolerance of water temperatures as low as 3.4 degrees C. These findings contradict previous ideas that female white sharks do not make transoceanic migrations, and they suggest natal homing behavior.