Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Gardiner, Jayne

Area of Concentration

Physics

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if the whitespotted bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium plagiosum) was capable of being trained to orient to magnetic fields of the same strength as the geomagnetic field. Using a pair of orthogonal four coil Helmholtz arrays, 10 whitespotted bamboo sharks were target trained to orient to a laboratory controlled steady magnetic field. The sharks were then assessed on their ability to reorient to the field when it was placed randomly at one of four targets in the tank during experimental trials. The results of this study indicate that, although the sharks may have begun to associate the tank with food, they were unable to be trained to orient to weak magnetic fields, selecting the first target they visit at random. This could be due to an insufficient training period, the lack of a magnetosensory system, or the inexperience of the captive raised sharks. Further study of the effect on the magnetosensory ability of sharks, as well as the effects of long term captivity, will be necessary to determine conclusively if sharks possess a magnetosensory system.

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