Shark News Roundup: the ecology of fear, curious whale sharks, and saving the manta rays
The shark blog-o-sphere has been busy lately. Here are some of the headlines from the world of shark science and conservation.
Chuck from Ya Like Dags has a fantastic post explaining the ecology of fear and how it relates to sharks. As it turns out, predators can have a major impact on an ecosystem just by being there- prey change their behavior in ecologically significant ways because they want to avoid being eaten. If you’re looking for scientific reasons why sharks are important to the ocean or if you’re just looking for a cool ecology story, check it out!
Al Dove of the Georgia Aquarium explains that whale sharks are curious animals that will sometimes swim over to check out humans. I’ve found that most sharks tend to avoid people, but he has a pretty convincing video.