When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in .

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime .

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital Magazine NEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Future

Facebook Helps Researchers Discover That Sharks Have 'Friends' After All

Long considered "lonely hunters," at least one species of sharks, the blacktip reef shark, is inclined to mingle across a variety of social ties and relationships. Researchers were able to apply new insights from studies of the way Faceb

Are you on Fishbook yet? (jonrawlinson)
Are you on Fishbook yet? (jonrawlinson)
Stéphane Foucart

Ethologists tend to wave off attempts to classify animal behavior within the realm of human feelings. But it is hard to avoid talking about the concept of friendship after reading a study of the small blacktip reef shark published in the latest edition of the journal Animal Behaviour.

The paper, which examines the behavior of the shark species also known as carcharhinus melanopterus, was conducted by Johann Mourier and his colleagues at the Island Research Centre and Environmental Observatory (CNRS, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes). The team has discovered nothing less than the enigmatic existence of friendship links being forged in this marine species, which was thought to be devoid of social structure.

If the research is correct, it would mean that these sharks are not only lonely hunters who prowl the reefs randomly: affinities between individual sharks seem to form communities within larger populations that share a territory.

How did the research team come to this counter-intuitive conclusion? "Before conducting this study, I noticed while I was diving in Moorea – an Island of French Polynesia – that I would often see the same sharks swimming together," says Mourier. "I asked myself if it was a coincidence, an effect of my memory, or if this was real."

To confirm or refute Mourier's impression, the authors of the paper conducted nearly 200 dives in seven sites along ten kilometers of the Moorean coastline. During each dive, they photographed sharks staying together -- each identified by the shape of the pattern adorning his black fin -- and carefully noted the associations between individuals.

"We used the research techniques that were originally used to study social networks like Facebook," Mourier says. "The principle idea is that by analyzing the connections between people, we can identify common interest groups, or communities. We used these tools to see if there were actually sharks in these communities of individuals who tend to cluster preferentially."

Hunting buddies

The researchers found that the population of blacktip sharks in this region is fragmented into four observable communities; the largest of these groups is itself divided into two subgroups. The sharks do not wander near the reefs at random, guided only by their search for prey. They associate more favorably with some peers while avoiding others.

So how are these social links forged? In order to find out, the authors looked for correlations between the sharks' affinities and their sex or size (that is to say, age). Still, these parameters were not enough to explain the social phenomenon uncovered in this case: the groups are all mixed.

"However," Mourier says, "within each group, the strength of the link between individuals appears to be related to these similarities." The team is currently conducting additional research based on DNA sampling in order to determine whether the groups are determined by family relationships. Depending on their findings, it may in fact be more appropriate to refer to the structures as tribalism rather than friendship.

The usefulness of these social groups among the blackfin shark population is not obvious. The authors suggest that the social ties may exist to reduce aggression between individuals, to protect the group against larger predators, or to allow certain forms of cooperation in the hunt.

Work on the sociability of sharks is rare, and this work could provide valuable insight into the communities of these animals. However, research conducted in aquariums has already shown that female sharks tend to form more cohesive groups when males are introduced into the same basin. Also juveniles from the same litter of lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) tend to stay together during the first years of their lives after they are abandoned by their mothers.

Read more from Le Monde in French

Photo - jonrawlinson

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

food / travel

When Racism Poisons Italy's Culinary Scene

This is the case of chef Mareme Cisse, a black woman, who was called a slur after a couple found out that she was the one who would be preparing their meal.

Photo of Mareme Cisse cooking

Mareme Cisse in the kitchen of Ginger People&Food

Caterina Suffici

-Essay-

TURIN — Guess who's not coming to dinner. It seems like a scene from the American Deep South during the decades of segregation. But this happened in Italy, in this summer of 2023.

Two Italians, in their sixties, got up from the restaurant table and left (without saying goodbye, as the owner points out), when they declared that they didn't want to eat in a restaurant where the chef was what they called: an 'n-word.'

Racists, poor things. And ignorant, in the sense of not knowing basic facts. They don't realize that we are all made of mixtures, come from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. And that food, of course, are blends of different ingredients and recipes.

The restaurant is called Ginger People&Food, and these visitors from out of town probably didn't understand that either.

Keep reading...Show less

The latest