Marine biologists have recorded leopard sharks mating in a threesome for the first time in the wild, off the coast of Nouméa, New Caledonia. The event, captured by Dr Hugo Lassauce from the University of the Sunshine Coast, shows two males sequentially mating with one female over 110 seconds.
Dr Lassauce spotted the trio while snorkelling and waited an hour with his GoPro before the mating began. The first male took 63 seconds, the second 47 seconds. Afterward, the males lay immobile on the seabed while the female swam away.
The observation, published in the Journal of Ethology, provides the first documented mating sequence for the globally endangered leopard shark. Dr Christine Dudgeon, a marine ecologist, said the footage suggests the site is a critical mating habitat and could inform conservation strategies, including artificial insemination for rewilding efforts.
