Lemon sharks are powerful and compact sharks perfectly adapted to hunting in warm, shallow waters.

BBC Two's Great Barrier Reef team set out to film the incredible action of lemon sharks leaping out of the water while catching fish. Series producer James Brickell reveals how they shot the sequence, what they actually witnessed and how the footage they captured may have revealed new shark hunting behaviour.

Research

Sharks are not renowned for their intelligence. Senses yes, intelligence no. The thought that they may use another animal to help them hunt seems somewhat unlikely.

There are examples of them hunting in numbers, or several sharks attacking the same prey at the same time, even hunting alongside other animals such as dolphin, tuna or sea birds; but is this co-operation or team work?

The animal world constantly surprises me and whenever I have spent any length of time watching some sort of behaviour it is not unusual to see something that I cannot find mention of in any book or scientific paper.

So it was the case with the lemon shark sequence for Great Barrier Reef.

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