(dramatic music)
Downloaded from YTS.MX
NARRATOR: In the animal kingdom,
males are often presumed to be the most dominant.
But are the biggest, baddest, and fiercest sharks in the ocean female?
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
-ERIC CLUA (over radio): Perfect! -ALISON TOWNER: Woah!
A beautiful, big, female great white shark came right under the boat here
and surprised us.
NARRATOR: Tap into cutting-edge research around the globe...
-THOMAS VIGNAUD (over radio): Oh, wow. -CLUA (over radio): It's a female.
NARRATOR: ...and uncover what it takes to rule the waves.
There are many differences between male and female sharks.
One fascinating factor is their behavior.
But could differences in both sex and behavior explain why some sharks attack?
REPORTER 1: Now to the high alert at America's beaches...
REPORTER 2: Lifeguards have spotted a shark near swimmers
about five feet from shore.
(tense music)
NARRATOR: In Mossel Bay, South Africa, Alison Towner is investigating the shark
thought responsible for more human fatalities than any other,
the great white.
ALISON TOWNER: If there's ever a species of shark
that you need to be extra cautious around, of course, it's a great white shark.
NARRATOR: Alison sets out to locate and tag a large, female white shark here
to reveal its movements and discover if females are more voracious than males.
The largest male white sharks grow over 13 feet in length,
but what about females?
While both sexes can actually get really large,
females have to be a lot bigger in order to reproduce.
To see a mature female great white shark is an absolute spectacle.
These animals get up to over 21 feet.
I mean, they're weighing in at around two tons.
NARRATOR: Some of the biggest documented white sharks are pregnant females.
They've got physiological demands on their body when they're pregnant.
NARRATOR: These enormous sharks must provide nutrients to sustain
as many as 17 live young in utero, each measuring up to five feet long.
TOWNER: This could mean that they're more hungry,
and that they're seeking out food by the coastal zones.
NARRATOR: Through active tracking with an acoustic transmitter,
Alison can gain valuable insight
into the movements of these mysterious females in real time.
But first, she must tag one.
TOWNER: Mossel Bay is a really important spot for white sharks.
And that's primarily because it's effectively an aggregation site
for their prey.
We've got a seal colony with around 4,000 Cape fur seals.
Look at that! Predation over there!
It's a shark taking a seal.
The most amount of seals found in a white shark's stomach
was six full Cape fur seals, not pups, adults.
We think it literally went around the island,
chomping seal after seal after seal.
We didn't realize they were capable of eating that much all in one sitting.
NARRATOR: Could bouts of intense feeding like this
relate to females bulking up before pupping?
Mossel Bay port control. Mossel Bay port control.
TOWNER: We just arrived at Seal Island,
we're gonna get some chum slick going into the water
so that we can get a white shark to the boat,
then we can get a tag in.
NARRATOR: These sharks may have the best sense of smell of any shark species.
TOWNER: Female great white sharks, what I like to call "the big girls,"
often, a lot of the other white sharks around the boat will just scatter,
and the big girls will kind of take over the show.
NARRATOR: These supreme predators rely on the art of ambush.
In the moments before an attack,
great white sharks can swim in bursts of over 20 feet per second.
It isn't long before the first shark appears.
(tense music)
TOWNER: Woah!
NARRATOR: It's a large female.
-MAN: Here it comes. Deep. Deep. -TOWNER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
NARRATOR: She could be exactly what Alison is looking for.
(dramatic music)
Near the back of the boat here. Having another fret at my bait.
NARRATOR: Alison must wait for the ideal moment to deploy the tracking device.
TOWNER: Woah!
She's here, she's here.
Woah!
Absolutely unbelievable!
We have a shark that's literally launched itself out the water
three times in a row,
to the point that we can't tag this animal.
NARRATOR: The shark will not stay in one place long enough to deploy.
Bring back again. Okay, here we go! Oh!
NARRATOR: Tagging a shark this unpredictable
is too dangerous for both Alison and the shark.
It is far too difficult.
But that's science for you, you know, it is full of surprises.
And white sharks all have their own personalities.
NARRATOR: Personality in animals is a pioneering area of research,
and a team of scientists are on a mission to understand the mind of the shark.
(dramatic music)
Rising abruptly from the depths of the Indian Ocean,
600 miles from the nearest landmass,
this is the lonely coral atoll of Fuvahmulah.
The fishermen here have swept fish blood and guts into the water for generations.
Inadvertently, they are calling a formidable predator up from the deep.
Dr. Thomas Vignaud is a shark behavior expert,
specializing in the personality of bull sharks.
Now he is preparing to meet another equally feared species,
the tiger shark.
VIGNAUD: There is nowhere else in the world
where you can get this close to tigers so easily.
Very shallow water, very close to the shore, just a few meters away.
NARRATOR: Thomas hopes to use these unique conditions
to assess the personalities of the local sharks.
VIGNAUD: Males will usually have a bit more energy and move around faster.
They are also more skinny and a little bit more cautious,
but females are usually very confident and bold, they get a lot closer.
So I know for a fact that there are shark personalities,
but it's really hard to translate that knowledge into science.
You have to translate it into measurements over years and years.
This is the really hard part.
Hey, hey! Shark!
I've never seen one so close to surface.
NARRATOR: Thomas' hypothesis
is that every shark has its own, very specific personality.
If his theory is correct, it could be a sign of intelligence,
which might evolve our perception of sharks.
VIGNAUD: I think there is a big storm coming in, it's pretty wavy.
I hope the visibility is okay.
Otherwise, it's gonna be really hard to see the sharks well.
It might get a little bit dangerous.
NARRATOR: If female personalities are different from males,
could this research then shed light on the profile of a shark that attacks?
George Burgess is a shark attack expert studying human-shark conflict.
The three species of sharks that are most dangerous to humans
are white sharks, bull sharks, and tiger sharks.
The big three probably represent about 80% of fatal attacks recorded
in the international shark attack file.
If you wanted to develop a profile of a killer shark, you'd start with size.
Size, of course, is the most important thing.
The shark has to be big enough to cause real damage.
And generally speaking, females tend to grow to a larger size than do males.
NARRATOR: With their physical superiority,
could large female sharks be more dominant and possibly more aggressive than males?
Thomas intends to find out.
(tense music)
He follows the reef towards the edge.
From here, the ocean floor drops away to a depth of over 16,000 feet.
VIGNAUD (over radio): I can't see any sharks here.
The visibility is a shame.
NARRATOR: It's from this abyss that the sharks come.
(tense music)
The tiger sharks begin to arrive.
But are they males, or females, which can grow up to 18 feet long?
VIGNAUD (over radio): Wow! Did you see that?
NARRATOR: Known to have one of the broadest diets of any shark species,
the tiger has a reputation as a scavenger that will eat almost anything.
VIGNAUD (over radio): Oh, wow. Here is a male.
These are his claspers.
NARRATOR: Claspers, the male reproductive organs, differentiate the sexes.
VIGNAUD (over radio): These males are, I'd say, 8 to 10 feet long.
Showing timid, skittish behavior.
NARRATOR: The males scatter.
A much larger shark has arrived.
(tense music)
VIGNAUD (over radio): Wow. Look at this female shark.
NARRATOR: A 14-foot-long female is on the scene.
VIGNAUD (over radio): This female is coming straight for the food.
NARRATOR: She swallows the entire tuna head in one effortless bite.
This female is at the front of the dinner line.
Thomas already sees similarities
between his work with bull sharks and the tiger sharks here.
But what about identifying different personalities
of both male and female sharks?
VIGNAUD: I've been very privileged
to spend over 1,000 hours with bull sharks in Fiji.
And it's been a great opportunity for me
to learn more about their behavior or their personalities.
You can really assess which one is dominant
and which ones are little bit less likely to go into a fight.
NARRATOR: Dominant, female bull sharks
seem to behave in a similar way to tiger sharks.
VIGNAUD: This is Ninja. It's one of my favorite bull shark.
Really impressive female, extremely smart, so agile, very skillful.
Those big female really have a--
a presence, something very special about them.
They are by far the most dominant.
NARRATOR: Like the large female tiger,
it appears females of both species can show dominance over males.
Now, he'll evaluate the personalities of these tiger sharks
and form a database.
Using a numerical scale, he'll score the tiger sharks' behavior,
rating their confidence from safe to potentially dangerous to humans.
VIGNAUD: I use it to write down the different behavior I see
in different situations.
For example, if a shark is coming to eat a fish head, it's one situation.
If a shark is coming towards me, a human being, it's a different situation.
NARRATOR: Using an ethogram,
Thomas reviews the personalities of the sharks, giving them a score from 1 to 10,
1 being very shy. 10, extremely bold.
VIGNAUD: If I take the average of all the situation,
then that gives me an idea of how bold or shy the shark is overall.
Then I can compare this shark to the others.
VIGNAUD (over radio): This male is really not confident,
he won't come near me.
This one is probably a 3.
Now this female is displaying a bold behavior, probably rating 7 or 8.
NARRATOR: From the outset, the females are scoring higher than the males.
VIGNAUD: When you spend thousands of hours with the same sharks in the water,
you really get to know them so well
that you can really predict what they're gonna do a few seconds before.
You really develop a special relationship with them. It's amazing.
NARRATOR: Rating behavior over extended periods of time
identifies the average behavior of each shark.
This can demonstrate unique, individual personalities.
And if sharks do have different personalities,
could this be a product of their experience, their environment,
or could it be their genetics?
(ambient music)
-CLUA: Hey! Thomas! (laughs) -VIGNAUD: Eric! Nice to see you.
NARRATOR: Thomas is joined by Professor Eric Clua
and his assistant, Clementine Seguigne.
Eric is a marine biologist
specializing in shark behavioral ecology and human-shark conflict.
I'm focusing, you know, on better understanding shark behavior.
NARRATOR: Eric's compelling theory could explain attacks on people.
If you accept the hypothesis that shark have personalities,
it means that every shark will be different one from each other.
Most sharks will never dare attacking a human,
but you may have some very few, scarce, dysfunctional animals that will do it,
and we call them problem individuals.
CLEMENTINE SEGUIGNE: Problem individuals are sharks
which display a very particular type of behavior.
Some shark can attack humans more than others,
particularly if these animals are very curious and inquisitive.
99.9% of the population will never attack a human.
But then you will have one that will do it, and repeatedly.
REPORTER: Tonight, danger in the surf. Lifeguards on shark patrol.
NARRATOR: Like Thomas, Eric's problem-individual theory
relies on demonstrating that sharks do indeed have individual personalities,
meaning some might be shy, while others are bold,
and that this individual behavior is consistent throughout the shark's life.
I have also to prove
that the personality trait is transmitted from one generation to another one;
that the young shark, which is bold,
will have either a mother or the father that is also bold.
NARRATOR: Eric must establish the lineage of these sharks through genetic analysis,
using DNA sampling.
If successful, he may be able to identify potential problem individuals
in a population.
We are trying to use less intrusive tools to get DNA from the shark.
So usually we were shooting the shark, you know, with a biopsy probe,
but we're gonna try getting DNA through the saliva of the shark.
NARRATOR: Eric hopes that a shark will bite the tuna head,
leaving behind a tooth mark
which may be swabbed for traces of the shark's DNA.
I'm hoping that the shark will have to struggle
to bite and cut the head, and hopefully, it will leave its DNA.
NARRATOR: The team head out of Fuvahmulah harbor
to search for the sharks, and they don't have far to go.
Woah! Shark! Shark! Shark!
-SEGUIGNE: Whoa! -CLUA: Wow.
That is a big one. That is a big one.
NARRATOR: Thomas coordinates top-side,
while Eric and Clementine prepare to get up close and personal.
-Ready to meet tiger sharks? -VIGNAUD: Oh, yeah.
Okay, let's go!
(tense music)
Hey, Eric, can you hear me? How's it going down there?
CLUA (over radio): Okay, the visibility is really bad.
(tense music)
There's something over there, in the distance.
How is the activity down there?
CLUA (over radio): Wow. They are all around.
(intense music)
Watch out, Clem!
That was close.
NARRATOR: Just as things are getting busy below,
the team on deck throw in the tuna head.
CLUA (over radio): It's a female.
Big shark!
(dramatic music)
(tense music)
CLUA (over radio): This is incredible.
She bit through the rope!
Did you see that?
Okay. We can get a DNA sample from that.
NARRATOR: Even underwater, traces of genetic material from the shark's mouth
will remain on the rope, providing invaluable DNA for the scientists.
Yes. That-- That piece. That piece is okay. Was very good.
Amazing!
SEGUIGNE: Some of the sharks are really well marked on the dorsal fin,
so we can recognize them quite well.
CLUA: Very impressive!
Very exciting to see these large animals coming from nowhere.
NARRATOR: The females are taking over the show.
CLUA: A big female came, she was bolder actually than the others.
She came, she took it, but then she left a nice piece of saliva on the rope.
Very good. It worked.
SEGUIGNE: We have photo of all of these sharks.
We have the behavior of all of these sharks.
And so we will be able to link pictures and behavior with DNA.
And that's really interesting,
because if some sharks are sharing the same behavior and the same DNA,
we will know that they will be related.
And that's a new discovery for us.
CLUA: We can better understand this link,
potential link between behavior and genetics.
NARRATOR: To identify a relationship between genetics and personality,
Eric and Clementine must use every chance they have to collect more samples.
Back at base, Thomas reviews the day's activities
to further develop his understanding of the tiger sharks' personalities.
VIGNAUD: Two sharks are going for the food.
This one is just swimming off.
-He's giving up giving up straightaway. -Yeah.
VIGNAUD: The shark is pushing the rock,
even biting to move the rocks away to get access to the food.
-It's impressive behavior. -It's amazing.
Ah, I love this shark.
She-- She's so gentle, you know,
only a few hours with her and you can already feel her personality.
Look at all those sharks. There's really great group dynamics.
You can see the smaller ones that are a little bit more away,
but the big ones are dominating the central space.
CLUA: Well, actually, I will feel very safe too, you know,
if I was a four-meter-long shark.
VIGNAUD: (laughs) True. Me too.
This is such a cool place. So many sharks in just one dive.
So many displays of different personalities. I mean, this is great.
NARRATOR: In Mossel Bay, Alison is still waiting for an opportunity
to tag a female white shark.
-MAN: Keep on going? -Yeah.
NARRATOR: The team set out to try a new area away from Seal Island.
(tense music)
Sharks are known to patrol the reef here, closer to shore.
All right, Justin. Neutral.
NARRATOR: With fewer seals around,
it's possible that the sharks are less frenzied, making them easier to tag.
(suspenseful music)
Oh, shark!
NARRATOR: Alison must act fast, choosing her moment.
TOWNER: We've got a beautiful, big, female great white shark that's just arrived.
She came right under the boat here and surprised us.
And then, I'm just gonna try and stick the transmitter right next to her fin.
(tense music)
MAN: You can pull it back.
TOWNER: Woah!
It's actually lining up the stars,
you need her to come past perfectly at the right time,
with the dorsal out of the water.
(intense music)
Okay, okay, okay. Here we go, here we go!
Yes! It's in! Woo!
NARRATOR: Alison attaches the tag to the shark's dorsal fin,
a huge success for the expedition.
Even though it looks a little bit invasive deploying these tags,
they heal very quickly.
NARRATOR: Flesh wounds are common in sharks, especially in females
whose skin grows up to twice as thick as the males,
protecting them from bites inflicted during mating.
So active tracking, it's almost like you're in the mind of the shark.
You actually get such a feel for what the shark is doing naturally.
You're in their world.
NARRATOR: Now, the team must track the shark's signal
to try to find out where and possibly what she is hunting.
(signal crackling)
It's a very weak signal.
I just thought maybe I was getting a ping from down here.
And it would have made sense that she beelined inshore.
We spent so much time trying to get that tag on that shark,
and we just couldn't get to her soon enough to-- to get a track.
NARRATOR: With no time to waste,
the team set out on a mission to find the tagged female shark.
With an abundance of prey across the bay, this shark could be anywhere.
BURGESS: The white shark, which generally prefers cooler waters,
tends to go after sea mammals.
Considering they have to come to the surface to breathe,
if you're a predator, the perfect time to get one of those animals
is when their head's sticking out of the water.
Investigative bites have been demonstrated in the white shark in particular.
A quick try to grab something at the water's surface
to determine what it is, whether it's edible or not.
"It's acting like the right kind of thing, it's the right size, and I'm hungry."
NARRATOR: Both mistaken identities and investigative bites
could account for a proportion of attacks every year, but Eric has another theory.
CLUA: There was the case of a tiger shark in Papua New Guinea
that perpetrated up to 12 attacks on humans.
(dramatic music)
Without knowing the gender of the animal, people called that animal "big boy."
In lots of cases, after an attack, the gender of the shark is not known,
but I have the strong feeling that in most cases,
females are responsible for these attacks.
Given the size of this shark,
instead of calling him "big boy," they should have called her "big girl."
BURGESS: In the year 2021,
the International Shark Attack File reported 73 incidents
of unprovoked shark attack worldwide, resulting in a very high number of deaths.
But we have essentially no information at all
on the sex of attacking sharks on humans.
But an attack by a larger animal, which would more likely be a female,
is likely to cause greater damage or greater harm.
NARRATOR: Could these monstrous females be more confident
due to their superior size, making them more likely to attack?
The team hopes to collect the genetic material of such a shark.
A bold, 14-foot-long female takes the bait.
CLUA: It is very important for us not only to get samples of DNA,
but also to know who they belong to, and to make the link
between the personality and the genetics of the sharks.
CLUA (over radio): This is a feeding frenzy. Get out of there.
Wait! It's a tooth!
NARRATOR: Eric sees a tooth fall from the large female's mouth.
It holds the DNA the team is looking for.
CLUA: When you're surrounded by so many sharks,
it's very difficult when you're underwater to make sure you can see 360 around you.
Actually, it's-- it's impossible.
NARRATOR: It is critical for Eric and Clementine to work together,
watching each other's backs, as they look out for the tooth.
CLUA: You should not allow a shark to come into the group
because then you're in trouble.
These animals, they have an amazing pressure in their jaw.
It's about half a ton per square centimeter.
You can imagine, these teeth, the damage they can do.
I prefer that not to happen to me.
CLUA (over radio): This is too dangerous.
(dramatic music)
(ambient music)
NARRATOR: Eric is determined to find the tiger shark tooth.
(intense music)
CLUA (over radio): Look at this tooth!
Perfect.
Wow!
We've got them.
Big females. And very bold, you know?
One of the shark had to struggle to get the head
and I saw one tooth falling out, and I was able to retrieve.
That tooth is from the first large female
that came and grab, you know, the tuna head.
NARRATOR: This tooth will be sent back to the lab for analysis.
Could she be related to the shark that bit through the rope?
With Thomas' ongoing ethogram studies
and Eric and Clementine's genetic approach combined,
the team in Fuvahmulah are gaining unique insight into the sharks here.
This multidisciplinary study could potentially hold the secret
to identifying what it takes to be a problem individual.
Whether problem shark or not,
when it comes to finding the queen of the waves,
Alison's theory is simple: size rules.
She firmly believes there is a direct correlation between size and dominance.
TOWNER: One thing I've observed with great white sharks,
if a large female comes on the scene,
and there are other smaller white sharks around her, they move out the way.
And it's almost like she's aware of her own presence and power as well.
So certainly the females assert their dominance,
and it's absolutely spectacular to see.
NARRATOR: These super-sized females are the largest predatory fish in the ocean.
Could they be defending a nursery to protect their young?
TOWNER: Would a mother shark be more aggressive?
Uh, not that we know of.
There's absolutely no mother-nurturing
when it comes to delivering pups as white sharks.
When they drop their pups, off the pups go, fully self-sufficient.
Nobody has ever seen or documented great white sharks giving birth or mating
anywhere on the planet. It's like the holy grail.
NARRATOR: But what about pregnant sharks? Could they be more aggressive?
Thomas is keen to track one down to assess its personality and find out.
VIGNAUD (over radio): There are two sharks coming from the depths.
Here we have 1, 2... I see a third one coming.
There are loads of sharks.
NARRATOR: Suddenly the sharks swim away.
Has something scared them off?
(tense music)
A 14-foot-long tiger shark emerges from the deep,
one of the largest of the expedition so far.
VIGNAUD (over radio): Oh, wow.
NARRATOR: And she's pregnant.
VIGNAUD (over radio): She's definitely the dominant female.
NARRATOR: Female tigers can carry more than 30 pups.
This encounter is short-lived,
and before Thomas has a chance to assess her personality,
she melts into the shadows.
Although bold, it seems this mother-to-be is not so voracious after all.
It's pretty well understood that pregnant females,
when they're in the areas where they're birthing, are not feeding.
We've seen time and time again,
where female sharks that are pregnant and getting ready to give birth,
ignore humans completely.
I'm unaware of any attack that has ever occurred with a pregnant shark.
TOWNER: One scientific theory
is that possibly they have hormones in the late-term of their pregnancy
that inhibit them feeding to prevent them from preying on their own young.
Could it be that a large, female white shark that's just given birth
and is now seeking prey,
maybe, sort of, less selective on what she's eating?
Difficult to support, but certainly something to consider.
Look, if you told me I wasn't eating for the last term of my pregnancy,
and I gave birth, I would be seriously hungry at the end of that,
and I'd certainly be looking for a meal.
NARRATOR: Alison continues the search for the tagged shark.
(signal crackling)
TOWNER: She's very far away,
but I think I'm starting to get some pings.
(tense music)
(signal cracking)
(signal crackling)
Here she is! We've got a signal... and a good one.
So now we're gonna quickly change hydrophones.
And we're going to see if we can get a directional track on her,
so that we can get positions and follow her around.
We know she's within 500 meters of the boat somewhere.
NARRATOR: Alison moves quickly to get a bearing on the shark,
before she loses signal again.
(signal crackling)
Yeah, she's over here, about one o'clock.
But if we don't go, we're going to lose her.
Let's go.
-(signal crackling) -She's there.
NARRATOR: The team are just over half a mile from the shore.
TOWNER: Who knew she'd be down here all this way from where we saw her?
One thing I love about these female sharks is that they're just so unpredictable.
One is not exactly really like the other,
so they'll constantly keep you on your toes.
-Okay, she's just over there now. -TOWNER: Okay. Let's go neutral.
-MAN: 22... -TOWNER: Yes.
MAN: 07, 5, 11.
It's like the ultimate game of hide and seek with a great white, isn't it?
NARRATOR: Alison continues the hunt.
Even with a tag, finding a single shark in the ocean is far from easy.
So when it comes to attacks, finding the perpetrator is extremely difficult.
Most sharks that are biting humans are gone after they bite.
-REPORTER: Danger in the surf. -BURGESS: We have virtually no confidence
in the identification of a shark or its size for most victims.
I'm aware of three different times
where an individual shark could be documented or hypothesized
as attacking more than once within a short period of time.
That's out of thousands that we've documented.
(dramatic music)
NARRATOR: But Eric is on the trail of one shark
which he believes is a repeat offender.
CLUA: In December 2020, there was a fatal attack in Saint Martin.
And one month later, there was a second attack, which was almost fatal.
These two attacks happened only 85 kilometers from each other.
NARRATOR: This is in an area where there have been no fatal attacks
in recent history.
But are these two incidents linked?
CLUA: We were able to prove that it was a tiger shark.
And now, we have ongoing genetic analysis
that should allow us to prove that actually, it is the same individual.
NARRATOR: The techniques Eric is employing in the Caribbean
could one day expose soon-to-be problem sharks.
CLUA: The central question is: Why a shark will bite a human being?
But actually, it's not the right question.
The right question will be: Why that shark bit a human being?
What make that shark different from the other sharks?
To understand that, we have to take the different components of shark behavior.
Dominance will, of course, be directly linked to the size of the shark.
But personality will also play a critical role for that dominance.
We want to identify the dominant animals
that dare participate directly to-- to the feeding frenzy.
Stay safe, okay?
NARRATOR: To identify the dominance hierarchy in this group of sharks,
the team must collect the DNA of the boldest individual
at the top of the pecking order.
This yellowfin tuna weighs 200 pounds and is a substantial prize to claim.
Sending down the tuna.
(intense music)
NARRATOR: The shark that comes in to take this tuna
could well rule the waves here.
The team don't have to wait long before they have a contender.
(suspenseful music)
(intense music)
(dramatic music)
CLUA (over radio): This is crazy. (laughing)
She took the whole thing.
VIGNAUD (over radio): I think this one is our queen.
CLUA (over radio): That is a very confident shark.
Amazing, amazing. That was a great experience.
Thank you very much, guys.
Ah! We got it! We got our queen!
It took time, but we made it. Wow! That was amazing!
At the beginning, there was something like 10 sharks.
Among them, there was two large females.
Then suddenly, one very impressive, enormous, large female came.
Wow, I think at least 16, I would say even 17, feet you know.
Yesterday, it was a princess. That is the real queen.
That is the Big Mama.
NARRATOR: The team have found a dominant shark,
but with no genetic material collected this time,
there is still a lot to learn about her.
SEGUIGNE: All the sharks, they move away, they let the queen come to the bait.
She definitely rules the sharks.
NARRATOR: She is enormous. She is confident. She is female.
But do these factors make similar sharks more likely to become problem individuals?
CLUA: They need to be bold, but that's not even enough.
To feed on a human, you also need positive reinforcement
through your own experience.
NARRATOR: A bolder shark could be more likely to experiment
with larger, riskier prey items.
If unharmed and rewarded with a meal,
it is conditioned through this experience to keep trying larger prey.
But if the animal does not have a positive experience
and is hurt or frightened, it may think twice before trying again.
Thomas believes that using this principle could mitigate against problem sharks.
VIGNAUD: When I work with bull sharks,
I have this special sound I use to scare them
to do negative reinforcement,
teach them this is not something I want you to do.
I was using a variant of the Doppler Effect.
(imitates cracking)
So you feel like something is going after you really fast
even though I'm not moving.
VIGNAUD (over radio): I'm going to try to scare this shark now.
KKKRRFFF!
They don't seem to react.
It worked with bull shark, but it doesn't seem to work with tigers.
I've tried many occasions in Fuvahmulah,
and because tiger sharks evolved to be more vision and smell,
maybe they don't react to sound as much.
NARRATOR: Whether or not conditioning sharks works as a deterrent,
perhaps shark personality should be given more consideration
when it comes to human-shark conflict.
CLUA: I don't like the mistaken identity concept.
Because it means that all the sharks around the world could make a mistake,
all sharks potentially represent a danger.
On the contrary, 99.9% of sharks will never represent a real danger for people.
Only 0.01 may represent a danger. And these are the problem individuals.
NARRATOR: If sharks do have individual, heritable personalities,
might this change our approach to shark attacks?
CLUA: Still the main strategy to manage human fatalities
is to cull sharks blindly, without any selectivity.
If we manage to prove that the hypothesis of the problem individual is true,
it means we don't have a problem with sharks.
We have just a problem with very few individuals.
VIGNAUD (over radio): Ah, she is so beautiful.
Sharks are sentient beings,
and they deserve respect as much as any other animals.
TOWNER: They absolutely have their own personalities,
and I think that is such a fascinating trait.
VIGNAUD: It shows they also have thoughts and maybe emotions.
TOWNER: Do sharks have feelings? I imagine they do feel pain.
But if they got the emotional complexity that we human beings tie to feelings,
that's a whole different level of science. But you never know.
Can you believe it, it's her! Look at this!
(scanner pinging)
She is a good kilometer and a half away from where we tagged her.
So close to shore, you can actually see a bunch of people on the beach.
And this animal is just doing what it does naturally.
It's patrolling the reef here.
If they knew what we were tracking right behind the surf here...
It just goes to show coexistence is ultimately possible.
In fact, it happens more than we know it.
NARRATOR: Eric and Clementine must wait for the results
of their ongoing genetic analyses,
which they hope will prove that personality is inherited,
and support their problem-individual theory.
SEGUIGNE: My dream is to understand better the behavior of sharks
to improve the relationships between humans and these animals.
Shark are not the man-eater that we think they are.
As a new generation of marine biologists,
it's up to us to protect sharks for generation to come.
VIGNAUD: Because of the million of years of evolution,
females have grown so much stronger, so much more resistant than males.
In the world of sharks, the rulers are the queen and not the king.
VIGNAUD: Their skin is thicker than the males. They grow larger than the males.
They live longer than the males, and they outnumber the males.
The females are 100% dominant.
CLUA: Here in Fuvahmulah, we definitely met a shark queen.
I hope that she and her fellow queens will continue to rule our oceans
for the many years to come.
VIGNAUD: Long live the Queen.