{"id":14471,"date":"2025-07-22T03:35:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T03:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14471\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T03:35:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T03:35:10","slug":"bizarre-animal-spotted-walking-along-great-barrier-reef-seabed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/14471\/","title":{"rendered":"Bizarre animal spotted walking along Great Barrier Reef seabed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A marine biologist has shared a glimpse into how\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/walking-shark\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">epaulette sharks<\/a>\u00a0get around \u2013 using their pectoral and pelvic fins to walk along the seafloor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that is why they are called \u2018walking sharks\u2019,\u201d says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jacintashackleton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jacinta Shackleton<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Cn_eiRILS_M\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Shackleton captured the remarkable video of a juvenile epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) exploring the reef while she was working at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ladyelliotislandecoresort\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lady Elliot Island eco resort<\/a>\u00a0on Australia\u2019s southern Great Barrier Reef.<\/p>\n<p>Diver films epaulette shark walking along the seabed. Credit: Jacinta Shackleton<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The sharks are most active around dawn and dusk as this is when they feed and this one was most likely out looking for food,\u201d says Shackleton who was researching the species as part of her studies with the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They have specialised organs called ampullae of lorenzini on their snout which help them pick up any electrical impulses from underneath the sand,\u201d she says. \u201cThis one eventually found some worms hiding under the sand!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Its fins enable them to &#8216;walk&#8217; along the seabed, over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/insects-invertebrates\/facts-about-coral-reefs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">corals<\/a>, and even across land,\u201d adds\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/masterreefguides\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Master Reef Guides<\/a>\u00a0when re-sharing the video on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DLcDJDmRsOO\/?igsh=dzMzdGRwcTM5bHdx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis special superpower allows them to move between rock pools at low tide to feed on trapped small fish and invertebrates, boldly going where no other predator can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Image and video credit: Jacinta Shackleton \/\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jacintashackleton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">instagram.com\/jacintashackleton<\/a><\/p>\n<p>More amazing wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A marine biologist has shared a glimpse into how\u00a0epaulette sharks\u00a0get around \u2013 using their pectoral and pelvic fins&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-14471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}