{"id":61827,"date":"2025-04-30T02:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T02:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/61827\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T02:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T02:52:08","slug":"new-study-finds-that-many-shark-bites-could-be-self-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/61827\/","title":{"rendered":"New Study Finds That Many Shark Bites Could Be Self-Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"study<\/p>\n

A gray reef shark in the Cairns aquarium. Photo: David Clode\/\/Unsplash<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

A new study released in Frontiers in Conservation<\/a> found something interesting about the uptick in shark attacks over the last few decades: <\/strong>sharks might be biting humans more because we\u2019re putting ourselves in a position to be bitten more.<\/p>\n

In a refrain you\u2019ve likely heard before, the chances of being bitten by a shark are vanishingly slim<\/a>. About 100 of them happen on average every year, and about 10 of those prove fatal. That\u2019s not necessarily because the sharks are trying to kill and eat people, but because sharks can have devastating bites, even when they\u2019re just \u201ctest bites.\u201d The research in the recently released study found that many sharks involved in attacks are acting defensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe show that defensive bites by sharks on humans \u2013 a reaction to initial human aggression \u2013 are a reality and that the animal should not be considered responsible or at fault when they occur,\u201d said first author of the Frontiers in Conservation Science study, Dr Eric Clua. \u201cThese bites are simply a manifestation of survival instinct, and the responsibility for the incident needs to be reversed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Self-defense bites, as the study defines them, are bites \u201cin response to human action that is, or is perceived to be, aggressive.\u201d That includes actions like spear fishing or attempts to grab the shark, and some sharks react by biting instead of fleeing \u2014 a behavior not uncommon in many other animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese bites may be delivered repeatedly and usually leave superficial, non-lethal wounds,\u201d the authors continued. \u201cThis pattern of low lethality is also common in defense-motivated bites inflicted by land predators such as bears and large birds such as cassowaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are some species of shark, like the gray reef shark, that are a little more territorial. A human in their space, whether the human knows he\u2019s in that space or not, could be considered by the shark as an act of aggression.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to consider the not very intuitive idea that sharks are very cautious towards humans and are generally afraid of them,\u201d Clua explained. \u201cThe sharks\u2019 disproportionate reaction probably is the immediate mobilization of their survival instinct. It is highly improbable that they would integrate revenge into their behavior and remain above all pragmatic about their survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the boom in influencer culture, Clua is wary of influencers using sharks for internet clout.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t encourage, as many influencers do on social networks, [people] to cling to a shark\u2019s dorsal fin or stroke it, under the pretext of proving that they are harmless,\u201d Clua said.<\/p>\n

While sharks can be dangerous, if we\u2019re a little more aware of staying out of their way, we are far more likely to avoid an attack. Unfortunately, as we spend more time in the ocean with activities like surfing, that gets more and more difficult. If you do run into a shark, Clua has some sage advice:<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t touch,\u201d he said. \u201cJust look at it. Enjoy its beauty, but remember they are wild animals, predators that can act as predators. It is not only a matter of safety but also of respect.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gray reef shark in the Cairns aquarium. Photo: David Clode\/\/Unsplash A new study released in Frontiers in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[70,31893,5882,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-61827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-shark-attacks","10":"tag-study","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114424653008961334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}