this is wild chronicles the warm shallow
waters off Florida South Coast are home
to a homebody the nurse shark these
large fish are bottom feeders foraging
usually at night and can appear rather
sluggish during the day but most nurse
sharks eat sleep and reproduce in one
area their entire lives and that
consistency is brought to scientists
back to the shallow co for many years
Jeff carrier in west pratt first time we
ever saw any of this activity was almost
almost 25 years ago I couldn’t exactly
tell what i was looking at until I
discovered that I was looking at two
sharks not one and that they were made
it ready Jeff and Wes are here
continuing the only long-term study of
shark mating in the wild these two shark
voyeurs had been up close and very
personal with their subjects the team
gets the close-ups here in the lagoon
but what about the bigger picture how
much mating occurs in the places they
can observe in the vast area outside the
study site well that’s a job for critter
cam this is an animal that’s lives in
deeper water its long-lived we can’t
follow it we don’t have the technology
to do that but Crittercam does nurse
sharks may be homebodies but so far
they’re not cooperating it’s been a week
and the crew has yet to see a mating
event
but finally they see the signs they’ve
been looking for
these female sharks are choosing their
picky about which males mate with him
and when the wrong guy shows up she
shows him to water as deep as we’re in
now so that he can’t get ahold of her
fins which is a vital first step when
the right male shows up she allows him
to push her to slightly deeper water to
mate the mail can get hold of that
valuable pectoral fin because they don’t
have hands he can then curve his body
around the female and mate with her I
want to see mating events I want to see
and I want to see I’d love to see him
travel around in here and continue on
his way and if and when he goes outside
to prove that hypothesis of deep water
meeting and it’s later the mail shark
has found a female and begins the
pursuit she moves quickly out of the
area that Wes and Jeff can study then
she stops and waits so does the man
then he makes his move biting her fin
the female arches her back and a
wrestling match begins the male makes a
total of three attempts to mate with but
he’s unsuccessful now what the male
moves into deeper water alone he stops
and seems to be resting her cam has
shown us that for the male’s maybe the
deep water is the refuge and it’s
turning our thinking around and maybe
even upside down Wes and Jeff will be
back to these waters again next year to
discover more secrets about this regal
shark
check for wild connors on your local PBS
station sponsored by National Geographic
mission programs taking science and
exploration into the new millennium
waters off Florida South Coast are home
to a homebody the nurse shark these
large fish are bottom feeders foraging
usually at night and can appear rather
sluggish during the day but most nurse
sharks eat sleep and reproduce in one
area their entire lives and that
consistency is brought to scientists
back to the shallow co for many years
Jeff carrier in west pratt first time we
ever saw any of this activity was almost
almost 25 years ago I couldn’t exactly
tell what i was looking at until I
discovered that I was looking at two
sharks not one and that they were made
it ready Jeff and Wes are here
continuing the only long-term study of
shark mating in the wild these two shark
voyeurs had been up close and very
personal with their subjects the team
gets the close-ups here in the lagoon
but what about the bigger picture how
much mating occurs in the places they
can observe in the vast area outside the
study site well that’s a job for critter
cam this is an animal that’s lives in
deeper water its long-lived we can’t
follow it we don’t have the technology
to do that but Crittercam does nurse
sharks may be homebodies but so far
they’re not cooperating it’s been a week
and the crew has yet to see a mating
event
but finally they see the signs they’ve
been looking for
these female sharks are choosing their
picky about which males mate with him
and when the wrong guy shows up she
shows him to water as deep as we’re in
now so that he can’t get ahold of her
fins which is a vital first step when
the right male shows up she allows him
to push her to slightly deeper water to
mate the mail can get hold of that
valuable pectoral fin because they don’t
have hands he can then curve his body
around the female and mate with her I
want to see mating events I want to see
and I want to see I’d love to see him
travel around in here and continue on
his way and if and when he goes outside
to prove that hypothesis of deep water
meeting and it’s later the mail shark
has found a female and begins the
pursuit she moves quickly out of the
area that Wes and Jeff can study then
she stops and waits so does the man
then he makes his move biting her fin
the female arches her back and a
wrestling match begins the male makes a
total of three attempts to mate with but
he’s unsuccessful now what the male
moves into deeper water alone he stops
and seems to be resting her cam has
shown us that for the male’s maybe the
deep water is the refuge and it’s
turning our thinking around and maybe
even upside down Wes and Jeff will be
back to these waters again next year to
discover more secrets about this regal
shark
check for wild connors on your local PBS
station sponsored by National Geographic
mission programs taking science and
exploration into the new millennium
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