One might suspect it is easy to tell male from female on sharks this size, but not necessarily. In a testament to the difficulty of "sexing" these sharks, in one frame you might assume this individual is a female, but a few frames later you can see the claspers indicating this is a male. This demonstrates how closely the claspers hug the shark's body until reaching sexual maturity. So despite the relatively impressive size of this shark, it is very possible that it is still not ready to mate. The last 3 frames are from still from my footage in 2015 which I've provided for comparison, showing claspers of male that appears to be ready to mate. Check out the nasty wound near the privates! Yikes! Just another example of the challenges these animals face in the wild. Nature already made it hard for them to reproduce, they don't need us stepping in and killing even a few as they struggle to reach the stage in life when they can finally reproduce. _______________________________________________ Filmed onboard @islander_charters by @watching_humans in Guadalupe ______________________________________ #sharksex #claspers #whiteshark #sharkID #guadalupe #WSV (at Isla Guadalupe) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq5UET4lxC4/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1dc8xf9yaxtao
