Aquarium Reptile Complex (ARC)
|
| Scientific Name: Chiloscyllium plagiosum |
| Description: |
| The white-spotted bamboo shark is a bottom-dwelling shark found living on reefs. These sharks feed mainly at night on fish and crustaceans they find along the bottom. Bamboo sharks have bodies that are slender so they can glide between coral branches and hide in tight reef structure. They reach an adult length of three and a half feet long. Like all sharks it is quite easy to sex the males from the females. Males have external appendages called claspers used to fertilize the female. After she is fertilized, the female lays an egg case with a developing embryo shark inside. It can take up to three months to hatch. The young sharks are approximately five inches long when they are born. Riverbanks Zoo Aquarium has one adult male and one adult female. |
| Range: |
| The Pacific Ocean from Japan to Indonesia, Thailand to India. |
| Status in the Wild: |
| Although this shark species is not heavily preyed upon, their survival is in jeopardy. As reef animals, the dynamics of the food chain on the reef determines their existence. As coral reefs are affected by global warming and non-point source pollution so then are the white-spotted bamboo sharks. |
|
|
|
