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Range and Habitat: A common inshore bottom shark found on tropical coral reefs in the Indo-West Pacific. India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Viet Nam, China, Japan, the Philippines, and Australia. They commonly occur in the intertidal, in tide pools on rocky or coral reefs close inshore, sometimes in water sufficient only to cover them.
Description: The maximum total length is about 95 cm (37 inches, 3 feet). Females are often larger than males. Adult males are from 69 to 76 cm (27 to 29 inches, 2.3 feet). The mouth is well in front of the eyes with a greatly elongated, thick precaudal tail. Whitespotted bamboo sharks have a prominent color pattern of numerous white spots and darker brown or blackish transverse bands on a dark brown background. Gill slits small, with the fifth overlapping the fourth.
Habits and Adaptations: The teeth are not strongly different in the jaw. Most are small and molar like throughout the mouth. Their slender bodies and strong, muscular, leg-like paired pectoral fins are ideal for clambering on reefs and in crevices. Movement of these sharks in their habitat is most likely dictated by food source. Most of their activity occurs during the day.
Diet: Food for these sharks is little known, but probably includes small bony fishes and invertebrates.
Breeding and Maturation: Reproductive habits of these sharks aren’t well known. In captivity males tend to search out females during breeding season. They are oviparous. The rounded egg cases are deposited on the ocean floor near their habitat. Lifespan is unknown.
Miscellaneous: Regularly taken in inshore fisheries in India, Thailand, and China and utilized for human food. These are common, small, harmless inshore sharks of continental waters of the tropical western Pacific. Large sharks and fish as well as humans are predators of this shark. |