A Potential Predation Attempt by a Great White Shark on an Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin

Michelle Wcisel; Wilfred Chivell; Michael D. Gottfried

doi:10.3957/056.040.0212

We can help you reset your password using the email address linked to your BioOne Complete account.

Registered users receive a variety of benefits including the ability to customize email alerts, create favorite journals list, and save searches. Please note that a BioOne web account does not automatically grant access to full-text content. An institutional or society member subscription is required to view non-Open Access content. Contact helpdesk@bioone.org with any questions.

All Fields are Required

First Name

Last/Family Name

Password

Password Requirements: Minimum 8 characters, must include as least one uppercase, one lowercase letter, and one number or permitted symbol Valid Symbols for password:
~ Tilde
! Exclamation Mark
@ At sign
$ Dollar sign
^ Caret
( Opening Parenthesis
) Closing Parenthesis
_ Underscore
. Period

Confirm Password

Web Account created successfully

Michelle Wcisel,^1,* Wilfred Chivell,¹ Michael D. Gottfried²

¹1Dyer Island Conservation Trust, P.O. Box 78, Gansbaai, 7220 South Africa
²2Museum and Geological Sciences, Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 48824–1045, U.S.A.

^*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: michelle@sharkwatchsa.com

Abstract

A live Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis) with two bite wounds resulting from a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) encounter was observed from the commercial whale-watching vessel, Whale Whisperer, in Gansbaai on 23 and 24 August 2006. The most severe wound was to the dolphin's left flank area, the other to the anterior portion of its dorsal ‘hump’. This is the first documented interaction and potential predatory shark attack on any cetacean species in Gansbaai, and is evidence that large great white sharks may opportunistically hunt humpback dolphins in this region of South Africa.

Citation Download Citation

Michelle Wcisel, Wilfred Chivell, and Michael D. Gottfried "A Potential Predation Attempt by a Great White Shark on an Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin," South African Journal of Wildlife Research 40(2), 184-187, (1 October 2010). https://doi.org/10.3957/056.040.0212

Received: 8 May 2010; Accepted: 1 January 2011; Published: 1 October 2010

You currently do not have any folders to save your paper to! Create a new folder below.