Freycinet's epaulette shark
| Freycinet's epaulette shark | ||||||||||||
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Illustration from the Iconographia Zoologica |
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| Hemiscyllium freycineti | ||||||||||||
| ( Quoy & Gaimard , 1824) |
Freycinet's epaulet shark ( Hemiscyllium freycineti ) is a shark from the bamboo shark family (Hemiscylliidae).
features
The species reaches a maximum length of about 70 centimeters, adult animals usually measure between 50 and 60 centimeters. The body is typically slender and becomes continuously narrower towards the tail, the tail is very long. The head and the body are covered with dark spots, but have no white spots or net patterns. Above the pectoral fin is a medium-sized, dark shoulder patch (epaulette patch) without a border. The fins of the young animals are dark in color, the color dissolves into a pattern of small and large spots as they grow. In addition, the young animals have dark stripes on the underside of the head and complete rings on the tail stem, which also disappear in the adult animals; here the underside is light.
Both the dorsal fins and the anal fin start very far back on the body. The first dorsal fin sits far behind the pelvic fins, the beginning of the anal fin is far behind the end of the second dorsal fin.
distribution and habitat
Freycinet's epaulette shark occurs around New Guinea and Indonesia . It lives on the continental shelf near the coast, mostly in coral reefs , over sandy bottoms and in seagrass beds in shallow water.
Way of life
Very little is known about animal biology. They likely feed on molluscs and crustaceans . Like other sharks in the family, it is oviparous and lays several egg sacs. The young sharks hatch with a length of less than 19 centimeters and the animals reach sexual maturity with a length of 47 to 64 centimeters.
Relationship to people
The small sharks are classified as harmless to humans due to their small size.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently has the species on the early warning list (“Near Threatened”) of endangered species. Since the shark occurs mainly in shallow water, it lives in the area of the steadily expanding fishing zones around New Guinea, in which trawls and sometimes dynamite are used to fish. At the same time, it can be assumed that the species is increasingly being caught for the aquarium hobby. With increasing knowledge of the biology and the population, a classification as an endangered species ("Vulnerable") is possible in the future due to the limited habitat and the fishing pressure .
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c Hemiscyllium freycineti in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010.4. Posted by: Kyne, PM & Heupel, MR (SSG Australia & Oceania Regional Workshop, March 2003), 2003. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
literature
- Leonard Compagno , Marc Dando, Sarah Fowler: Sharks of the World. Princeton Field Guides, Princeton University Press , Princeton and Oxford 2005, pp. 168-169, ISBN 978-0-691-12072-0 .
- LJV Compagno: Sharks of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalog of shark species known to date. Volume 2. Bullhead, mackerel and carpet sharks (Heterodontiformes, Lamniformes and Orectolobiformes). FAO Species Catalog for Fishery Purposes. No. 1, Vol. 2. FAO Rome 2001 ( complete PDF , species portrait ).
Web links
- Freycinets Epaulette Shark on Fishbase.org (English)