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Zebra shark

Stegostoma fasciatum

Description:

Active-swimming predators, groups of leopard sharks often follow the tide onto intertidal mudflats to forage for food, mainly clams, spoon worms, crabs, shrimp, bony fish, and fish eggs. Most leopard sharks tend to remain within a particular area rather than undertaking long movements elsewhere, which has led to genetic divergence between populations of sharks living in different regions. This species is aplacental viviparous, meaning that the young hatch inside the uterus and are nourished by yolk. From March to June, the female gives birth to as many as 37 young after a gestation period of 10–12 months. It is relatively slow-growing and takes many years to mature.

Habitat:

Coral reef

Notes:

Active-swimming predators, groups of leopard sharks often follow the tide onto intertidal mudflats to forage for food, mainly clams, spoon worms, crabs, shrimp, bony fish, and fish eggs. Most leopard sharks tend to remain within a particular area rather than undertaking long movements elsewhere, which has led to genetic divergence between populations of sharks living in different regions. This species is aplacental viviparous, meaning that the young hatch inside the uterus and are nourished by yolk. From March to June, the female gives birth to as many as 37 young after a gestation period of 10–12 months. It is relatively slow-growing and takes many years to mature.

1 Species ID Suggestions

The MnMs
The MnMs 10 years ago
Zebra shark
Stegostoma fasciatum Zebra shark


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12 Comments

Mona Pirih
Mona Pirih 10 years ago

Beautiful... It's so awesome !! Thank you for sharing Ben :)

The MnMs
The MnMs 10 years ago

Fared, I agree that the names should be switched :-)
Thanks Bennolbold for not taking bad the correction. In any case it is an awesome example for fun facts in PN, congratulations!

FaredinAliyevski
FaredinAliyevski 10 years ago

Cool, nice you remembered it :). But on the other side it has been named weirdly since this has no pattern like a zebra even doesn't ring a bell of it so of course people would think it's leopard shark with those spots. And the leopard shark should be called zebra shark with those stripes :).

The MnMs
The MnMs 10 years ago

Hi Fared, I saw the same species in the same place before. It is a nurse shark often seen in the Andaman Sea. I hope the ID gets corrected also in the Fun Facts in Facebook.

FaredinAliyevski
FaredinAliyevski 10 years ago

Marta that's amazing you noticed it, it was even featured as a fact with a wrong ID: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=...

Benno Ibold
Benno Ibold 10 years ago

Thank you for your correction. Leopard shark was that what the dive guide told me. Seems they don't know their own fishes ;)

The MnMs
The MnMs 10 years ago

It is a type of nurse shark and I also saw it in the Phi Phi islands, Andaman Sea :
I meant to post this in your spotting but I wrote it in mine by mistake, so here it goes again :-)

The MnMs
The MnMs 10 years ago

Dear Bennobold:
I had not notice before but your ID is wrong. your shark is like in my spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/629...
It is a zebra shark :-) I have added the species name in my ID suggestion.

Benno Ibold
Benno Ibold 10 years ago

Jack, the exact place was Kho Bon in the Andaman Sea.

Jack Settle
Jack Settle 10 years ago

Awesome! I love how it is in the middle of the ocean on the map. :D

Benno Ibold
Benno Ibold 10 years ago

Thx Louis. I remember that place as was it yesterday. In the decompression phase in low water he lay on the sand and was sleeping. I had to go very close with that simple under water camera so that I could touch him. But I was afraid ;).

LuisStevens
LuisStevens 10 years ago

Great spotting Benno!

Benno Ibold
Spotted by
Benno Ibold

Spotted on Jul 25, 2008
Submitted on Jul 25, 2013

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