
Blacktip reef shark
Latin name: Carcharhinus melanopterus
A Marvel of Adaptation!
- It is wonderfully adapted to hunting and evolving in water environments. Its fusiform body is hydrodynamic, which allows it to reach a speed of 37 km/hr. Its teeth are constantly renewed, ensuring that they are always as sharp as knives!
- Its skin is not covered with scales but with dermal denticles, a structure more similar to teeth that considerably reduces problems linked to underwater turbulence.
- Aggression occurrences related to the blacktip reef shark are rare as only 11 unprovoked attacks have been reported by the ISAF (The International Shark Attack File) since 1959.
- In Hawaii, some families consider this shark to be an aumakua, or guardian spirit, often of ancestors.
- This shark is vulnerable to overfishing since its gestation period is long, the female gives birth to only 2 to 4 young, and the mortality rate for young sharks is of about 75%
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Distribution
Warm waters of the Indo-Pacific
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Habitat
Coastal waters
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Diet
Carnivore
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Status
Near threatened
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Zoo Zone
South Pacific Odyssey Pavilion