Sand Tiger Shark

Fascinating facts about the Sand Tiger Shark

• Sand tiger sharks are the only sharks that gulp air at the surface and stash it in their stomachs, letting them hover almost weight-less in the water column. This near-neutral buoyancy lets them drift silently while stalking prey, turning a bulky predator into a stealthy ambush hunter.
• A sand tiger mother may start a pregnancy with up to 50 embryos, but once one reaches about 10 cm it devours its siblings, leaving a single pup per uterine horn. After this intra-uterine cannibalism the surviving embryo feeds on unfertilised eggs, resulting in a 1 m-long newborn after an eight-to-twelve-month gestation. Females give birth only every two to three years, yielding less than one pup per year, one of the lowest reproductive rates among sharks.
• Sand tiger sharks in South Africa and Australia embark on an annual migration that can span more than 1,000 km one way, with the full round-trip reaching up to 3,000 km. They travel north in winter to warmer breeding caves, then head south again in autumn to cooler birthing grounds.
• The sand tiger shark is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. For critically endangered sharks and rays, about 90 % have under 1 % of their distribution protected, leaving the sand tiger virtually unshielded from fishing and habitat loss. This mismatch shows that existing MPAs offer little real safety for the species and that broader, targeted protection is urgently needed.
• Adult sand tiger sharks can grow to 3.2 m (10.5 ft) long and weigh up to 159 kg (351 lb), though most individuals measure 2.2-2.5 m and weigh 91-159 kg. Their stout, grey-brown bodies with reddish spots make them look formidable, yet their size places them among the larger coastal sharks.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

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