Black-riff reef shark: distinctive features and way of life

Black-backed reef shark is a typical inhabitantcoral reefs and shallow waters. This small fish rarely gets people into trouble, but sometimes it can be very dangerous. People eat their meat, they are kept in aquariums and aquariums. Because of the frequent capture, the species is considered "close to the vulnerable".

Shark among other cartilaginous fishes

Black-backed reef, or Malgash night shark,belongs to the family of gray sharks. Many of its representatives are very dangerous and rarely miss the opportunity to taste human meat. The family includes such "thunderstorms of the seas", as tupory, blue and tiger. All of them are famous cannibals.

Compared with them, the Malgash reef sharkspretty peaceful. They rarely attack just like that and bite basically especially annoying divers, whose limbs are confused with their usual prey. They become dangerous and aggressive if they smell wounded fish or when they are set on hunting. But even then the predator mostly only bites, so the fatal outcome of his attack is a rarity.

Malgash shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus)it is easy to distinguish from others, but you can easily confuse it with an ordinary black-and-white shark (Carcharhinus limbatus). Both species are small in size, have dark spots at the ends of the fins and tail, prefer shallow water. But the range of habitat is usually much broader. Unlike the reef, it also inhabits the Atlantic coast of Africa, America and Europe, and lives on the Pacific coast of Central and South America.

Reef black-haired shark: description

The body of these sharks is elongated in length. They are excellent swimmers and are capable of reaching high speed. On average, their size does not exceed 1.5 meters. Record among the black reef sharks reached from 1.8 to 2 (in different sources) meters in length. The weight of the animal fluctuates within ten kilograms.

The color of this species is typical for gray sharks. Their dorsal part is gray-brown, and the abdominal is light, almost white. The fins of the fins and tail are black, and below the black spot there is a clearly visible white band.

They have a short and wide snout of oval form. The pectoral fins of the reef shark are narrowed towards the end and rounded with a sickle in the direction of the tail. They are long and make up about 20% of the size of the shark's body. The first dorsal fin is also long, the second much smaller than it. Between them there is no crest or other outgrowths. The first fin on the back does not taper too much to the tip, curving towards the tail.

The eyes of the night Malgash shark are quite large andstretched in a horizontal direction. Nostrils surround the skin folds. They have up to 13 upper and 12 lower teeth of a triangular shape. At the end they have many small notches. They help to cut a large victim or tear off pieces of meat from it.

Habitat

Black-backed reef shark inhabits subtropicaland the tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. It is found at the eastern coast of Africa and Madagascar, in the Red Sea, distributed on the shores of South and South-East Asia and the surrounding islands, on the west and east coasts of Australia and the waters of Micronesia.

Malgash sharks rarely fall below 80meters, mainly staying at depths of up to 30 meters. They live in salty waters and reef-rich areas rich in food. Can go to the reef platform, where the water can barely cover their back.

Black reef sharks appear and lightlybrackish waters, swimming in the estuary of rivers or coastal lagoons, lakes and shallow mangroves. Individuals were seen in fresh Malaysian water bodies.

Food

Like most other sharks, black reef- predators. Their main prey are the bony fish of the rayon class. Victims of sharks are both medium-sized animals (30-50 cm) and rather large representatives, whose size can exceed one meter.

The ration of the predator includes mullet, groupers, gubans,surgical and mahore. However, they are not limited to fish by eating small mammals, squid, octopus, cuttlefish, other sharks and rays. In coastal waters, they can also hunt sea snakes and rats.

Their eyes are poorly adapted to the difference of smalldetails and colors. They find the extraction by smell. In addition, they are attracted by the sound of water strikes and movement. Not too large objects, they can distinguish from a distance of 1-3 meters, but at the same time poorly identify its shape. Perhaps that's why in the stomachs sharks sometimes find anything, even stones.

With plenty of food, in critical situations or withstrong smell of blood, they can fall into "food insanity." At such times sharks quickly and chaotically begin to rush at everything that moves. From this sometimes suffer from divers.

Lifestyle

As the name implies, the night Malgash sharksmore active at night. They live singly or in small groups. For hunting large victims are gathered in packs. For some representatives of a black-backed reef sharks, attachment to a specific locality is characteristic. They occupy the liked territory and live within its limits for several years.

On sandbars, they appear rarely. During the day, constantly "on duty" at the reefs and coasts, floating back and forth and looking out for prey. Often they themselves become prey to other sharks or large fish, for example, grupers.

They are not too bold and prefer to avoiddangers. In a normal situation, when they meet a person, they try to swim away. Once again, do not swim into the depths of the ocean and deep lagoons - to where the tiger sharks live.

Reproduction

Black-backed reef sharks have a very long reproductive period, which also affects their numbers. Pregnancy lasts from 7 to 11 months, depending on the habitat of the animal.

They practice live birth. After fertilization, an egg is formed inside the female, which also hatchs there. Embryos grow quickly. By the time of birth, they grow up to 50 centimeters. One female brings 2-5 cubs.

Young individuals live in mangroves orvery small coasts with a sandy bottom. In the first two years they continue to grow rapidly, adding 20 centimeters, then growth slows down. Sexual maturity of animals reach, when grow up to about one meter.