Emilio Sperone

Università della Calabria | Università della Calabria · Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences - DiBEST

Knowledge about the social behavior of sharks is a growing research field, but not many observations are available on the social interactions between pairs of sharks in the presence of passive surface bait and mainly related to aggregations. Between 2009 and 2018, in Gansbaai, South Africa, 415 white sharks were sighted, and 525 surface-generated s...

Galeus melastomus is the most common Pentanchidae in the Mediterranean Sea. A scavenger and opportunistic feeder, and despite the wide distribution, little is known about its feeding habits in Italian waters. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the diet of the blackmouth catshark by analysing the stomach contents. The specimens analys...

Marine pollution, due to the regular discharge of contaminants by various anthropogenic sources, is a growing problem that imposes detrimental influences on natural species. Sharks, because of a diet based on smaller polluted animals, are exposed to the risk of water contamination and the subsequent bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Trace eleme...

Stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) were analysed in vertebrae of Scyliorhinus canicula (n=40; 13 males, 27 females) from the central Tyrrhenian Sea to explore a potential trophic shift in relation to sex and maturity condition. Isotopic values were obtained from the centre and the periphery of the vertebra of each individual to test for the effect of...

Stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) were analysed in vertebrae of Scyliorhinus canicula (n=40; 13 males, 27 females) from the central Tyrrhenian Sea to explore a potential trophic shift in relation to sex and maturity condition. Isotopic values were obtained from the centre and the periphery of the vertebra of each individual to test for the effect of...

The influence of environmental factors on prey discrimination of bait-attracted white sharks was studied over a six-year period (2008–2013) at Dyer Island Nature Reserve (Gansbaai, South Africa). Across 240 bait-attracted feeding events observed in this period, both immature and mature white sharks were attracted by the seal-shaped decoy rather tha...

Background Hotspots of intraspecific genetic diversity represent invaluable resources for species to cope with environmental changes, and their identification is increasingly recognized as a major goal of conservation ecology research. However, even for iconic and endangered species, conservation strategies are often planned without thorough inform...

The white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) is a charismatic species and, consequently, one of the most studied and protected sharks. This species can be found in a wide range of temperatures and depths, showing site fidelity and migrating across the oceans. This offers a challenge to understanding the processes influencing their lifecycle and, more i...

Climate and land cover changes are the two most important stressors causing the decline of amphibians’ populations worldwide. Within the Mediterranean area, one of the global biodiversity hotspots, the endemic Italian yellow-bellied toad (Bombina pachypus) suffered the same fate, as the decreases and local extinctions proved over time. Since the ne...

Correlating animal behaviours in the enclosure space is fundamental to improving enclosure design and determining management actions for increasing captive animal welfare. The aim of this study is to report the behaviours in the enclosure space of three captive leopards. The enclosure map was divided into 2x2 meters squares with a total of 54 cells...

Ichthyosaura alpestris inexpectata (Dubois & Breuil, 1983) è un relitto glaciale presente con popolazioni piccole e isolate in cinque località nella Catena Costiera settentrionale (Giacoma et al., 1988; Lanza et al., 2007). Il tritone calabro rappresenta quindi un unicum di elevato valore biogeografico e conservazionistico. Tutte le località di pre...

Background Hotspots of intraspecific genetic diversity represent invaluable resources for species to cope with environmental changes, and their identification is increasingly recognized as a major goal of conservation ecology research. However, even for iconic and endangered species, conservation strategies are often planned without thorough inform...

Parasitological, hematological, and ecotoxicological analyses were carried out on a population of lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula from the central Mediterranean Sea. Parasitological analyses highlighted a poor helminthic community, highly dominated by a single taxon represented by the cestode Nybelinia sp. No differences in the parasit...

Elasmobranchs are highly threatened globally; 25% of species are estimated to be endangered by the IUCN. This disturbing trend is more significant in the Mediterranean, where over half of the species represented in the basin are at risk. Yet, there is still a considerable knowledge gap about distribution, abundance, and critical habitats of Elasmob...

The Mediterranean Sea has a long-lasting history of fishery exploitation that, together with other anthropogenic impacts, has led to declines in several marine organisms. In particular, elasmobranch populations have been severely impacted, with drastic decreases in abundance and species diversity. Based on their experience, fishers can provide info...

Felids have always been frequently hosted in all the zoos around the world. However, due to the different types of needs that these animals have, it is not always easy to ensure their wellness. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to develop ex situ projects in order to achieve a very thorough knowledge of the ethological characteristics of the d...

In the approach to the monitoring of endangered species, the synergy of ex situ and in situ projects is fundamental. In particular, ex situ projects help to achieve a comprehensive and detailed knowledge of the ethology of these species, which is a fundamental information in the management of wildlife park. In this way, zoos are able to provide the...

Research on animal colouration has grown exponentially in the last decade thanks to multidisciplinary approaches. Most studies were focused on trade-offs between communication and mimicry, which represent the two main constraints and drivers of the evolution of body colourations. Reptiles are excellent model species in order to investigate such fie...

The first record of Tetragonurus cuvieri Risso, 1810 off Calabrian coast (Southern Italy, Central Mediterranean) is reported. The specimen, a male of 361 mm total length, was found at a depth of 7 m during a scientific visual census research activity, in March 2017. The sighting was located off the Tyrrhenian coast of Calabria (Paola: 39.355453N, 1...

This Collective Article presents information on 17 taxa belonging to five (5) Phyla and extending from the Alboran Sea to the Levantine Sea. These new records were found in six (6) different ecoregions as follows: Alboran Sea: Second and easternmost record of the sponge Chalinula nigra in the Mediterranean Sea; Western Mediterranean: first record o...

The white shark Carcharodon carcharias has been present in the Mediterranean Sea since 3.2 million years ago. Nevertheless, the current population shows a low genetic variability suggesting an endangered small population, on which there is scarce information regarding ecotoxicology or trophic ecology. Given that white shark's sightings are rare in...

The illegal trade has been threatening tortoise populations worldwide for decades. Nowadays, however, DNA typing and forensic genetic approaches allow us to investigate the geographic origin of confiscated animals and to relocate them into the wild, providing that suitable molecular tools and reference data are available. Here we assess the suitabi...

Despite Calabria represents an interesting study area due to its geographic position, nothing is known of the presence of sharks and rays in this region. Data presented in this work come from nineteen years of opportunistic fishing surveys (from 2000 to 2019). Our data shows that 53 species of elasmobranchs are present in Calabrian seas: 30 of thes...

In the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 the feeding behavior of the whale shark has been studied off Nosy Be Island (Madagascar). In particular, the investigations involved the description of the behavioral modules of the whale shark and their relationship with the phytoplankton communities. In total, 65 phytoplankton samples were collected in the followi...

From 2005 to 2018 the individual surface behaviour of bait-attracted white sharks during ecotourism activites has been studied off Dyer Island Nature Reserve (South Africa). Observations were made from a commercial cage-diving boat both by observers and by a drone. A total of 235 white sharks has been identified. The individual behavioural units ob...

The Nursehound, Scyliorhinus stellaris (Linnaeus, 1758), is a benthonic catshark present inshore and offshore in the northeast and eastern central Atlantic, over the continental shelf between southern Scandinavia and Senegal, and is also distributed throughout the Mediterranean. This species is fished by bottom trawls, gill nets, bottom set long li...

Both trace elements and isotopes analysis were performed on two samples of vertebrae of White Sharks Carcharodon carcharias from Favignana Island (Sicily, central Mediterranean). For the trace elements analysis, the ICP-MS associated by Laser Ablation allowed us to find 36 trace elements. More samples were taken, on the same vertebrae, along a tran...

Since 2000, the CSS team (Sharks Studies Center), as part of the project: "Ecology and Ethology of the Great White Shark", has been collecting ethological data during Scientific Expeditions organized in South Africa in Gansbaai, 200 km east of Cape Town. In Gansbaai Bay and around Dyer Island and Geyser rock, there is a large population of White Sh...

It is known that juveniles whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) have tendency to gather, seasonally, in a few coastal areas around the world to feed on zooplankton; however little is known about their food preferences. The CSS (Centro Studi Squali) scientific coordinator of the project “Whale shark feeding ecology” (in partnership with University of Cala...

Hematology is now a useful diagnostic tool in human and domestic mammalian medicine and is becoming such also in the clinical evaluation of fish. Most of the current knowledge of fish hematology derives from research carried out on agnate organisms like missine and lampreys, on a few species of elasmobranchs and on some species of teleosts, althoug...

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as organochlorine compounds (OCs) are still exploited in some countries both for special permit and for the non-regulation of these products. Marine apex predators like sharks have the potential to accumulate and biomagnify OCs due to their position in the trophic food web. In this study we analyzed hexachl...

1. Cage diving is the most important activity for the sustainable use of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). However, information related to their behaviour during ecotourism is scarce. 2. This study provides useful information for monitoring C. carcharias during cage‐ diving activities around Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Surface behaviour of 106 w...

We report the occurrence of the European Brook Lamprey, Lampetra planeri (Bloch, 1784), in the Lao river in the Calabria region (southern Italy). This record extends the species’ known distribution limit southwards. Information regarding some morphometric and ecological data are provided and discussed.

White sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, are often described as elusive, with little information available due to the logistical difficulties of studying large marine predators that make long-distance migrations across ocean basins. Increased understanding of aggregation patterns, combined with recent advances in technology have, however, facilitated...

Illegal trade is threatening tortoise populations worldwide since decades. Nowadays, however, DNA typing and forensic genetic approaches allow to investigate geographic origin of confiscated animals and to relocate them into the wild, provided that suitable molecular tools and reference data are available. Here we assess the suitability of a small...

Sommario: I top predators sono rappresentati da varie specie di animali che occupano i vertici della rete trofica. Per la loro posizione e per il lungo ciclo vitale sono sottoposti a numerose minacce tra le quali l'accumulo di contaminanti organoclorurati. Sono stati presi in considerazione i top predators marini di diverse specie di Mammiferi odon...

The presence of the digenean Otodistomum veliporum is reported here for the first time as a parasite in the spiracle of a Mediterranean specimen of the kitefin shark Dalatias licha. © 2018, Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries. All rights reserved.

I NDIVIDUAL IDENTIFICATION OF SHARKS THROUGH DORSAL FIN: A NEW APPROACH THANKS TO ADVANCES IN COMPUTER SCI ENCE

Since 2016 a ph.D project for reconstructing life history traits of a population of lesser spotted dogfish (Scyliorhinus canicula) from Central Mediterranean sea has been started. One of the goal of this research is to delineate heavy metals and other trace elements concentration in vertebrae and their effects on the immune system of the species an...

Individual surface behaviour of white sharks in the presence of bait has been studied from 2005 to 2017 at Dyer Island Natural Reserve (Sotuh-Africa). Observations were made from a commercial cage-diving boat. We observed 220 white sharks that exhibited 9 different types of of individual behaviour: parading, bait following, visual inspection, breac...

The paper confirms the presence of Alopias superciliosus in the Tyrrhenian Sea, giving useful information for a species assessed as "vulnerable" worldwide and "data deficient" for the Mediterranean Sea by IUCN. In the stomach of this shark, 25 specimens of Pseudophyllidea, 4 of Trypanorhyncha and 3 of Anisakis spp. were found. In the gut, the prese...

Background. The blue shark (Prionace glauca, Linnaeus 1758) is one of the most abundant epipelagic shark inhabiting all the oceans except the poles, including the Mediterranean Sea, but its genetic structure has not been confirmed at basin and interoceanic distances. Past tagging programs in the Atlantic Ocean failed to find evidence of migration o...

Cytochrome-b (Cytb), A, and Control Region (CR), B, divergence time analysis of the total BS dataset Node ages on the node labels. Posterior probability on the branches. 95% HPD bars showed for nodes with Posterior > 0.5.

Control region alignment. The sequences will be deposited in the GenBank upon acceptance of the paper

Mismatch Distribution for the four different blue sharks geographical groups for both Cytochrome-b (Cytb) and Control Region (CR) mitochondrial markers

Pairwise Φst values (below the diagonal) and associated p-values (above the diagonal) among the juvenile and immature blue sharks of the three geographical areas estimated at the two mitochondrial markers (Cytochrome b, Cytb; Control Region, CR) *Values that resulted not significant after the Bonferroni correction for multiple tests (a-level of sig...

Cytochrome-b (Cytb) and Control Region (CR) Maximum Likelihood Haplotype Network of Mediterranean and North Atlantic Blue Shark populations detailed per sampling locations

Collected BS individuals categorized by sex and size across sampling areas and regions M, males; F, females; na, unsexed; J, juvenile (TL ≤ 120 cm); Y, young (TL = 120–180 cm); L, large (TL ≥ 180 cm). NATL: North-eastern Atlantic; WMED: Western Mediterranean; EMED: Eastern Mediterranean.

Cytb, A, and control region, B, genetic diversity data from the eight sub-populations South North East Atlantic, SNEATL; North North East Atlantic, NNEATL; West-Mediterranean/Balearic, BALE; South Tyrrhenian Sea, TYRR; Calabria Ionian Sea, IONI; Central Adriatic Sea, CADR; Aegean Sea & Eastern Ionian Greece.

Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) of Cytochrome b (Cytb) and Control Region (CR) of the Juvenile and Immature Mediterranean and North-eastern Atlantic Blue Sharks (Prionace glauca)

Cytb alignment. The sequences will be deposited in the GenBank upon acceptance of the paper

Environmental factors affect behavior during surface predatory activity of Great White.We observed that individual behaviors were exhibited with environmental conditions opposed to those in which social behaviors were observed.

Observations about use of legal and illegal baits during ecotourism activities with Great White Sharks in Guadalupe Island.

This three year project aims to contribute to the knowledge of the biology and ecology of the common-spotted-catsharks, Scyliorhinus canicula. This is one of the most representative species of sharks in the Mediterranean basin. Specific goals will be to provide information regarding the status of populations of this shark in the Central Tyrrhenian...

Bioaccumulation of 13 trace elements in the livers of 38 Pelophylax sinkl. hispanicus (Ranidae) and its helminth communities were studied and compared among three sites, each with a different degree of pollution along River Neto (south Italy) during September, 2014. Trace element concentrations in water and liver were measured using inductively cou...

During a 5 days research expedition performed in January, some observations on a whale shark population were performed. Just 7 specimens have been observed and identified. This number of sharks is lower than that observed in previous report and similar research efforts. Recent remote sensing studies showed summer phytoplanktonic bloom higher than i...

It concerns the monitoring Plan for the LIFE PAN Project Natura 2000 - Calabria

Nursehound Scyliorhinus stellaris and small spotted catsharks Scyliorhinus canicula are frequently hosted in public aquaria and their husbandry is improving. The reproduction of this species in captive conditions is not difficult and juveniles are easily maintained in laboratory or in thematic tanks showed to the public. Data on juveniles are easil...

In this Collective Article on “New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records”, we present additional records of species found in the Mediterranean Sea. These records refer to eight different countries throughout the northern part of the basin, and include 28 species, belonging to five phyla. The findings per country include the following species: Spain: C...

In this Collective Article on “New Mediterranean Biodiversity Records”, we present additional records of species found in the Mediterranean Sea. These records refer to eight different countries throughout the northern part of the basin, and include 28 species, belonging to five phyla. The findings per country include the following species: Spain: C...

Top-predators may be extremely vulnerable to environmental contaminants, such as organochlorines (OCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), mostly because of their position in the trophic web. In this study, the use of skin biopsy is proposed as a sensitive non-lethal technique for the toxicological assessment of white shark (Carcharod...

Nursehound, Scyliorhinus stellaris (Linnaeus 1758), is a shark of the Scyliorhinidae family, close to the Scyliorhinus canicula (Linnaeus 1758), frequently hosted in public aquaria. Information on biology and ecology is deficiently available regarding this species of sharks. In the Mediterranean basin, they are occasional rare and vulnerable specie...