Carcharias taurus (Carcharias taurus)

Carcharias taurus belongs to ordo: Sharks (Selachimorpha)

Our Carcharias taurus are kept in :

Shark aquarium

The grey nurse, spotted ragged-tooth or sand tiger, Carcharias taurus, is a large shark inhabiting coastal waters worldwide, with many different names in different countries in the world. Despite a fearsome appearance and strong swimming abilities, it is a relatively placid and slow moving animal. It is considered not aggressive unless provoked.

Research indicates that generally the shark remains within a kilometre of its aggregation site, and stays close to the ocean floor. Present throughout the world, in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, the shark is a common sight in many areas of the world.

The sharks typically congregate in coastal waters, at depths of 10-60 metres, although deeper depths have been recorded. Often they will shelter in caves or gutters during the day, and come out at night to feed. During the day they exhibit sluggish behavior, becoming more active during the night.

The species is ovoviviparous, i.e. bearing live young from eggs which hatch inside the uterus. Female sharks have two uteruses. Inside the uterus the young sharks develop and eat each other, so typically only two young sharks are born for each gestation period, which lasts 6-9 months. This process, also known as intrauterine cannibalism, is making it harder for the shark population to rebound from the near extinction. As a result, scientists plan to artificially inseminate and breed the sharks, in order to increase their population.[3] Another plan is to remove the shark embryos from the uterus before cannibalism can take place and then artificially gestate them.[4]

Through the 1950s and 1960s it was hunted to near extinction in Australian waters by spearfishing, and numbers there are only slowly making a resurgence. The Eastern Australian population is critically endangered, whereas in the west of the continent the population is listed as vulnerable.

The text above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL). It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Carcharias taurus".