Tiger Shark
Galeocerdo cuvier
Striped when it's young, and willing to eat almost anything — including things that aren't food.
The tiger shark is named for the dark stripes on its sides, which are boldest on young sharks and fade as they grow. It's one of the biggest hunting sharks in the sea, with a blunt, square snout and a famous appetite: sea turtles, seabirds, other sharks — and, now and then, rubbish.
On the conservation status
Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. Tiger sharks are caught for their fins, meat and liver oil, and taken by accident on fishing lines set for other fish.
- Length
- Up to 5.5 m (18 ft)
- Weight
- Usually 385–635 kg (850–1,400 lb)
- Diet
- Almost anything — turtles to tin cans
- Stripes
- Bold when young, fading with age
- Litter
- 10–82 pups
- Pregnancy
- 13–16 months
The good stuff.
The ocean's rubbish bin
Tiger sharks eat sea turtles, rays, seabirds, dolphins, squid and other sharks, plus whatever else they come across. Scientists have found tin cans, a plastic bottle and sacks in their stomachs.
Teeth made for shells
Each tooth is curved, notched and finely serrated like a saw — the right tool for slicing through a sea turtle's shell.
Stripes that fade
A young tiger shark is boldly barred and spotted, like the cat it's named after. By the time it's fully grown the stripes have faded, and an old one can look almost plain grey.
Huge families
A mother tiger shark gives birth to anywhere from 10 to 82 pups at once, after carrying them for 13 to 16 months — longer than a human pregnancy.
All around the world
Tiger sharks live in warm and temperate seas all over the planet, everywhere except the Mediterranean, and have been recorded as far north as Iceland.
One of the big three
Tiger, bull and great white sharks are behind most serious shark bites on people. Even so, bites are extremely rare.
Wait, really?
- ✦
Newborn tiger sharks are 51–76 cm long — about as long as your arm.
- ✦
Off Hawaii's remote islands, tiger sharks turn up every summer just as young albatrosses make their first flights, and catch the ones that land on the water.
- ✦
When a dead whale floats at the surface, dozens of tiger sharks can gather to feed on it.
What it sounds like
Silent. Sharks have no known calls of any kind.
Where you might see one
Tiger Beach in the Bahamas, Aliwal Shoal in South Africa, Fiji, and Hawaii.
The trouble
- Fishing for fins, meat and liver oil
- Getting caught by accident on longlines
- Shark nets and baited lines at some beaches
One real thing
Most sharks are killed for their fins. Say no to shark-fin soup, and if your family buys fish, choose seafood from fisheries that don't catch sharks by accident.
More ways to help