How Sharks Use Math to HuntGrade 12 Applied Math Project

Aaron Hancharyk

• When a sharks food source becomes increasingly difficult to find they use a strategy called Levy Flights to improve their chance of finding prey.

Levy Flight

An example of a Levy Flight I made.

• A levy flight is tight groupings of random movements followed by longer leaps. Sharks use this when food is scarce. The levy flight is used when food is scarce because the sharks can’t really know where there food is and this better increases their chances of finding food.

Proof• David Sims of the Marine

Biological Association of the United Kingdom and his colleagues tagged 14 species (55 marine animals in total) and found the animals moves made levy flights. They tracked the animals for a total of 55 days.

photo credit: Brian Tietz

• Here is an example of a Levy Flight a shark may use.

Bibliography• http://

seeingcomplexity.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/levy-flight1.jpg

• http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-06-11/entertainment/27066910_1_levy-sharks-and-other-animals-wild-animals

• Magazine- Discover Magazine, January/Febuary 2011 pg.78

• Even with this proof there are experts that do not agree that sharks use Levy Flights. Simon Benhamou an ecologist at the National Center for Scientific Research in Montpellier, France is one of these experts. His argument with Levy Flights and sharks, makes the animals seem "fully stupid, unable to process information and act accordingly“ when their food is scarce and other threatening factors.

The End.