Every austral summer, Rangiroa and Tikehau atolls in French Polynesia host a mysterious assembly of female great hammerhead sharks — a critically endangered and typically solitary species.
An unusual, all-female assembly of great hammerhead sharks has been gathering in the tropical waters of French Polynesia every summer for over a decade, with numbers peaking around the full moon, scientists have discovered.
In the summers of 2020 and 2021, researchers recorded 54 female great hammerhead sharks and one whose sex could not be determined at the two atolls, which are 9 miles apart. Great hammerhead sharks are a solitary species, so the high number of females sighted at the same time around Rangiroa and Tikehau atolls indicates the area is an aggregation site, according to the study. The sharks likely have no relationship to each other but are drawn there by external factors that appear to be linked to the lunar cycle and the presence of ocellated eagle rays , the study found.
Large gatherings of great hammerheads in the area coincided with high numbers of ocellate eagle rays entering the lagoons to reproduce. Sharks prey on these rays, whose mating season is"a predictable event that sharks could try to intercept," the researchers wrote.
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