Stereotyped Motor Patterns in Two Captive Bull Sharks, Carcharhinus leucas

Abstract

Various motor patterns and the associated social activities have been described for the bonnethead shark, Sphryna tiburo (Myrberg and Gruber 1974) and the gray reef shark, Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos (Johnson and Nelson 1973). The sterotyped nature of these body movements and postures, as well as their departure from normal swimming behavior, were similar to those the authors observed in two captive bull sharks, Carcharhinus leucas. This report describes the behavior of these two bull sharks when the proper releasing situation occurs.