Whitetip Shark

Triaenodon obesus

The whitetip reef shark is a requiem shark in the family Carcharhinidae and the only living species in the genus Triaenodon. A small shark rarely exceeding 1.6 m, it is easy to identify by its slim body and short, broad head, the tubular skin flaps beside its nostrils, oval eyes with vertical pupils, and the white tips on its dorsal and caudal fins. It is one of the most common sharks on Indo-Pacific reefs, ranging as far west as South Africa and as far east as Central America.

Family

Carcharhinidae

Avg Size

150-180 cm

Habitat

Its distribution spans the entire Indo-Pacific. It was once believed to have lived in the Atlantic, based on fossil teeth from North Carolina dated to the Miocene, but later research attributed those teeth to a mackerel shark and concluded the whitetip never reached the Atlantic. Within the Indian Ocean it occurs off northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and all along the East African coast, from the Horn of Africa to the Red Sea and along the Indian subcontinent, including Sri Lanka.

Behaviour

With its slim, supple body, the whitetip reef shark excels at squeezing into narrow cracks and holes to reach prey other reef sharks cannot, but it is clumsy when trying to take food suspended in open water. It feeds mostly on bony fish such as eels, squirrelfishes, snappers, damselfishes, parrotfishes, surgeonfishes, triggerfishes and goatfishes, as well as octopuses, spiny lobsters and crabs. It responds keenly to the smell, sound and electrical signals of prey, while its vision is tuned more to movement and contrast than to fine detail.

Where & When to See It

Woodhouse Reef

Whitetip Shark

Where & When to See It

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