Shark life cycle has many elusive stages. Mating is one of these secretive moments. Here in this short observation filmmaker Yann Hubert captures a pair of Grey Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) during copulation. Characteristic clasper organs used by the male to latch onto the female during copulation is very striking. The location and time of the year in this extremely serendipitous encounter is not specified perhaps to avoid disturbance from many curious divers. Grey Reef Sharks are common and live in the Indo-Pacific, it is found as far east as Easter Island and as far west as South Africa.
The grey reef shark is a viviparous species. The nourishment to the embryos is provided with a yolksac placenta during gestation. The gestation period lasts approximately 12 months, followed by live birth of a litter of 1-6 pups. Today we still know of very little about how sharks mate and give birth. For instance a rather small local Mediterranean population of Great White Sharks are know to give birth in few special nursery location including Lampedusa and Altinoluk.
Shark copulation is an intense interaction where the male will bite at the female’s body or fins to grab onto her. This behavior is rather similar in other shark species such as the nurse sharks:
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