Just like dolphins, sharks can be trained to roll over to be cuddled by humans. In experiments carried out in the United States, several species of shark allowed themselves to be picked up from the water and cuddled by their trainers.

The U.S. trainers used coloured boards and sounds to train their sharks to respond to commands. No one had attempted to train sharks in this way before and the results are truly ground breaking. Shark keepers now hope that the new technique will give sharks a higher quality of life in captivity. When sharks ned to be moved, the normal practise is to chase them around, but a trained shark could instead be thought to just gently swim to a certain spot.

“The US team has shown that many varieties of sharks can quickly learn to respond to a combination of audible and visual signals”, says Carey Duckhouse of UK’s Sea Life Centres.

Keepers at the UK’s Sea Life Centres are planning to use the methods developed in the U.S. to train sharks kept in British facilities. Colour boards and sounds will be used to show each shark when it is his or her turn to receive food. If everything goes according to plan, the fastest learners in the shark tanks will grasp the idea within three months.

When a shark have learned to associate particular colours and sounds with food, the signals will make it approach its keeper who will be holding a “target stick” against which the shark will rub its nose in hope of getting a tasty treat.

”Some species, such as zebra sharks, will even roll over to have their tummies scratched or allow themselves to be lifted from the water without any kind of struggle,” says Dickhouse.