Lemon Sharks
Juvenile Lemon Sharks
Some chuckle at the name given to the lemon shark until they see one. This shark is yellow in color which is where the name derives from. They mainly stay close to the surface of the water. They also prefer water that is moderate or warm compared to the colder waters.
Lemon sharks are mainly found along the Southeastern coast in the United States. The Gulf of Mexico is also a prime location for them. They have been known to migrate to places including West Africa. You will notice them more in the summer months when they tend to migrate.
Interesting Facts about Lemon Sharks
Most people are very curious about lemon sharks due to their color. They are basically loners but they sometimes form small groups of two or three. They have been known to attack people from time to time. It is believed this is done out of fear and not aggression. There have only been 22 reported lemon shark attacks on humans with each person surviving.
The have a magnetic sensor in their nose that allows them to attract prey and to find others to mate with. They depend on this sense of smell because they have very poor eyesight. Without that sensor they would have a very hard time surviving.
Lemon Shark
The Food Source for Lemon Sharks
Lemon sharks feed on various types of fish that are found in the waters. Mainly they stick to small prey that aren’t able to put up much of a fight. They sometimes feed on small sharks as well. When meat can’t be readily found the lemon shark will even end up feeding on mollusks and crustaceans. They don’t require a large volume of food due to their small size so they can go quite a while without feeding.
The Anatomy of a Lemon Shark
The lemon shark has one of the most peculiar colors of all the species. With a yellow color and white on the belly it is distinctive and won’t be mixed up with other species of sharks. They are a small species of sharks with the largest ones no more than 12 feet.
Like most sharks it has very sharp teeth but you will notice they are shaped differently. They are curved rather than straight up and down. This is to allow them to easily catch fish that are slippery and could otherwise get away. They get a new set of teeth about every week.
Reproduction for a Lemon Shark
The mating of lemon sharks has been closely observed. The males and females will travel very long distances in order to find someone to mate with. Even if there are others in the area they tend to mate with those from a distance. Researchers aren’t sure what this means but they believe it has to do with not breeding with closely related males and females.
The lemon shark gives live birth to its young in the water. They may have a litter with four to about fourteen pups at a time. The females will migrate to very shallow waters before the birth occurs. This way the pups will have a good chance of surviving. The mother will leave them as soon as they are born to care for themselves.
What does the Future hold for the Lemon Shark?
The lemon shark seems to do quite well on its own so there aren’t any concerns about its future. There has been a drop in numbers over recent years though and it is believed to be due to the use of the waters they once lived in for other purposes.
Some people believe they are in danger due to the number of them in captivity. However, researchers have found that the lemon shark does well in captivity so they are able to observe their behaviors and abilities. It has allowed them to learn a great deal about sharks in general.
Nurse Sharks
Nurse shark
The scientific name for the nurse shark sounds like something Bilbo Baggins might have said to summon elves to his rescue: Ginglymostoma cirratum. Actually the name is a mix of Greek and Latin and means “curled, hinged mouth” to describe this shark’s somewhat puckered appearance.
The origin of the name “nurse shark” is unclear. It may come from the sucking sound they make when hunting for prey in the sand, which vaguely resembles that of a nursing baby. Or it may derive from an archaic word, nusse, meaning cat shark. The most likely theory though is that the name comes from the Old English word for sea-floor shark: hurse.
Nurse sharks are slow-moving bottom-dwellers and are, for the most part, harmless to humans. However, they can be huge—up to 14 feet (4.3 meters)—and have very strong jaws filled with thousands of tiny, serrated teeth, and will bite defensively if stepped on or bothered by divers who assume they’re docile.
They use their strong jaws to crush and eat shellfish and even coral, but prefer to dine on fish, shrimp, and squid. They are gray-brown and have distinctive tail fins that can be up to one-fourth their total length. Unlike most other sharks, nurses are smooth to the touch.
Nurse sharks are found in the warm, shallow waters of the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans. They are abundant throughout their range and have no special conservation status, although the closeness of their habit to human activities is putting pressure on the species.
Facts
- Type:
- Fish
- Diet:
- Carnivore
- Average life span in captivity:
- Up to 25 years
- Size:
- 7.5 to 9.75 ft (2.2 to 3 m)
- Weight:
- 200 to 330 lbs (90 to 150 kg)
- Group name:
- School or shoal
- Did you know?
- Nurse sharks are nocturnal and will often rest on the sea floor during the day in groups of up to 40 sharks, sometimes piled on top of each other.
