Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-26T18:03:49.279Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Attempted Ambush Predation on Spawning Squids LoligoVulgaris Reynaudii by Benthic Pyjama Sharks, PorodermaAfricanum, off South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Malcolm J. Smale
Affiliation:
Port Elizabeth Museum, PO Box 13147, Humewood 6013, South Africa
Warwick H. H. Sauer
Affiliation:
Port Elizabeth Museum, PO Box 13147, Humewood 6013, South Africa
Roger T. Hanlon
Affiliation:
Marine Biomedical Institute, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77550–2772, USA

Extract

This first description of behavioural interactions between benthic pyjama sharks Poroderma africanum (Chondrichthyes: Scyliorhinidae) and spawning squids Loligo vulgaris reynaudii (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) was made from underwater video recordings. The behaviours are described and illustrated to show that the sharks searched for squids in egg beds, then rested there partially hidden and immobile. The pyjama sharks at-tempted to ambush the squids when they approached to lay their eggs after they had apparently habituated to the predators. Although normally nocturnal, the pyjama sharks had emerged by day from caves and cracks in the rocky reef to attack the spawning squids, thereby benefiting from an occasionally available resource.

Type
Short Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bass, A.J., D'aubrey, J.D. & Kistnasamy, N., 1975. Sharks of the east coast of southern Africa. II. The families Scyliorhinidae and Pseudotriakidae. Investigational Report. Oceanographic Re-search Institute. South African Association for Marine Biological Research. Durban, no. 37,164.Google Scholar
Bruggen, A.C. Van, 1965. Records and observations in the Port Elizabeth Oceanarium in 1960. Zoologische Garten, Leipzig, 31,184202.Google Scholar
Buxton, Cd. & Smale, M.J., 1984. A preliminary investigation of the marine ichthyofauna in the Tsitsikamma Coastal National Park. Koedoe, 27,1324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Compagno, L.J.V., Ebert, D.A. & Smale, M.J., 1989. Guide to the sharks and rays of southern Africa. Struik: Cape Town.Google Scholar
Hanlon, R.T., Smale, M.J. & Sauer, W.H.H., 1994. An ethogram of body patterning behavior in the squid Loligo vulgaris reynaudii on spawning grounds in South Africa. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 187, 363372.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morejohn, V.G., Harvey, J.T. & Krasnow, L.T., 1978. The importance of Loligo opalescens in the food web of marine vertebrates in Monterey Bay, California. Fish Bulletin. California Fish and Game Commission, no. 169, 6798.Google Scholar
Sauer, W.H. & Lipinski, M.R., 1990. Histological validation of morphological stages of sexual maturity in the chokker squid Loligo vulgaris reynaudii D'Orb (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae). South African Journal of Marine Science. Cape Town, 9,189200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sauer, W.H.H. & Smale, M.J., 1991. Predation patterns on the inshore spawning grounds of the squid Loligo vulgaris reynaudii (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) off the south-eastern Cape, South Africa. South African Journal of Marine Science. Cape Town, 11, 513523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sauer, W.H.H. & Smale, M.J., 1993. Spawning behaviour of Loligo vulgaris reynaudii in shallow coastal waters of the south-eastern Cape, South Africa. In Recent advances in fisheries biology (ed. T., Okutani et al.), pp. 489498. Tokyo: Tokai University Press.Google Scholar
Sauer, W.H.H., Smale, M.J & Lipinski, M.R., 1992. The location of spawning grounds, spawning and schooling behaviour of the squid Loligo vulgaris reynaudii (Cephalopoda: Myopsida) off the Eastern Cape coast, South Africa. Marine Biology, 114, 97107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar