BIG SOFTIES?: Great white sharks form friendships, study shows

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Great white sharks are big ol’ softies, and form friendships — as they patrol the oceans together and find their latest prey.

Er, so maybe not that soft.

New research found that the fearsome predators do make friends with other predators and stick together when they are patrolling the ocean waters.

Experts at Florida International University tracked six sharks off the coast of Mexico and discovered the great whites spent more than an hour together, hanging out and checking out seal colonies.

The researchers studied the social dynamics and hunting tactics of the sharks, which was published in the journal Biology Letters.

They tagged the white sharks and were able to measure behaviour and time spent with other tagged sharks.

“We showed sharks may form some strong associations — over a few days — with some individuals,” said lead author Dr. Yannis Papastamatiou. “But there is a lot of variation between sharks in terms of how social they may be and how they behave.”

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The researchers followed the six great whites — three males, three females — over a four-year period.

The data showed that, for the most part, the sharks preferred to stick with their same gender.

The sharks also hunted differently; some preferred to be in the deepest of waters while others were active where it was shallow.

Also, some preferred to hunt during the day; others, at night.

But Papastamatiou acknowledged that it might not necessarily be about friendship but rather, about what their new pal’s next meal might be — then take advantage of that shark’s hunting success.

“Sharks may stay in proximity of other individuals in case those individuals are successful in killing large prey,” he said. “They aren’t working together but being social could be a way to share information.”