Title : Sharks can be trained to associate music with rewards
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Sharks can be trained to associate music with rewards
Sharks can be trained to associate music with rewards (and it turns out they prefer jazz over classical)
- Research from Macquarie University shows sharks associate sound with food
- Baby Port Jackson sharks to go to a feeding station when they heard jazz music
- Previous anecdotal reports said the fish could associate boat engines with food
- The research shows sharks are far more sophisticated than given credit for
A new study out of Macquarie University has shown that sharks prefer jazz music to the more standard Jaws theme song.
Researchers from the university's Fish Lab have trained baby Port Jackson sharks to associate the sound of jazz music with a food reward.
When the animals hear the sound of smooth soul, they headed to feeding station for a treat.
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Researchers from the Macquarie University's Fish Lab have trained baby Port Jackson sharks to associate the sound of jazz music with a food reward. Previous anecdotal reports said the fish could associate the sound of boat engines with food
'Sharks are generally underestimated when it comes to learning abilities – most people see them as mindless, instinctive animals,' said lead author Catarina Vila-Pouca from the Department of Biological Sciences.
'However, they have really big brains and are obviously much smarter than we give them credit for.'
Previous anecdotal reports had claimed that sharks could associate sound with food, such as hearing a boat engine in regards to cage-diving activities.
The study published this week in Animal Cognition provides evidence that sharks can learn the association quickly.
'Sound is really important for aquatic animals, it travels well under water and fish use it to find food, hiding places and even to communicate,' Vila-Pouca said.
However, the sharks had a harder time identifying the difference between jazz and classical music, and found themselves slightly confused.
'It was obvious that the sharks knew that they had to do something when the classical music was played, but they couldn't figure out that they had to go to a different location,' said Associate Professor Culum Brown, leader of the Fish Lab.
'The task is harder than it sounds, because the sharks had to learn that different locations were associated with a particular genre of music, which was then paired with a food reward. Perhaps with more training they would have figured it out,' Brown continued.
DO SHARKS HAVE BEST FRIENDS?
For the first time, researchers have shown that sharks show very strong preferences for particular individuals in their social networks over years, and prefer to hang out with others of the same sex and size.
The study, which involved tagging Port Jackson sharks (Heterodontus portusjacksoni), was conducted in Jervis Bay in New South Wales, Australia.
The bay was chosen because it hosts large seasonal mating aggregations of Port Jackson sharks, a bottom-dwelling species endemic to Australia, where both males and females migrate yearly from their foraging ground in southern Australia to return to the same reef in Jervis Bay to breed.
Locations of acoustic receivers deployed in Jervis Bay (NSW, Australia); each circle represents a receiver
Proximity loggers were attached to seven individual sharks in 2012, and acoustic receivers, fixed either to the seafloor or to mooring lines in mid-water, allowing for the remote tracking of marine life in three dimensions, were deployed in 2012 and 2013.
The researchers found that when the sharks return to their breeding reefs, they do so with incredible accuracy.
The Fish Lab at Macquarie University studies these shark social interactions by using acoustic tags that identify individual animals when they are within range of a receiver.
By analyzing the time-stamps of these receivers, the researchers can tell who hangs out with who and for how long.
The researchers from the Fish Lab hope this research will reveal some of the learning abilities of sharks and help shift public opinion towards them.
'Gaining a better understanding of this will help grow positive public opinion of sharks and may shift public and political will towards their conservation,' Vila-Pouca said.
Humans kill up to 273 million sharks a year and many species are in danger of becoming endangered or extinct.
A study published in Marine Policy last year found that global total shark mortality needs to be reduced drastically in order to rebuild depleted populations and restore marine ecosystems with functional top predators.
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