Shark facts
Short facts, and straight answers to things people say about sharks. Every one lists where we found it.
Short facts, and straight answers to things people say about sharks. Every one lists where we found it.
Babies and life
A blue shark mother has about 30 pups at a time on average, and the Florida Museum says she can have up to 80. That is one of the biggest litters among sharks that give birth to live young.
Sources: Florida Museum: Blue shark profile
Babies and life
Egg-laying sharks leave leathery egg cases fixed to the seabed, a reef or seaweed. The pups inside can take around 6 to 9 months to be ready to hatch.
Sources: Shark Trust: Shark reproduction, Peer-reviewed paper on egg-laying in sharks (PubMed Central)
Babies and life
Male great white sharks are not old enough to have pups until about age 26, and females until about age 33. Many sharks take years, or even decades, to mature, so they have babies slowly.
Babies and life
Scientists studying lemon sharks at Bimini, in the Bahamas, found that females return to the same shallow lagoon where they were born to have their own pups.
Sources: National Geographic: Sharks return to their birthplace to give birth
Babies and life
In 2016 a zebra shark named Leonie at an aquarium in Australia had three pups after living apart from males for years. DNA tests showed the pups carried only her genes, a "virgin birth" that scientists call parthenogenesis.
Babies and life
A female spiny dogfish can carry her pups for up to two years, one of the longest confirmed pregnancies of any backboned animal. A few deep-sea sharks may carry theirs even longer.
Sources: NOAA Fisheries: Eight surprising shark facts, Guinness World Records: Longest gestation period
Babies and life
Most live-bearing shark pups swim away and look after themselves right after they are born. Many are born in warm, shallow nursery areas such as coastal bays, where there is plenty of small food and fewer big predators.
Sources: Shark Trust: Pups, NOAA Fisheries: Eight surprising shark facts
Babies and life
Inside a mother sand tiger shark, the first pup to hatch in each womb eats its siblings. Only one pup survives per womb, so she gives birth to just two, and each is already more than three feet long.
Sources: PBS NOVA: When shark fetuses attack, NOAA Fisheries: Eight surprising shark facts
Babies and life
Some sharks lay eggs in tough cases. Others keep the eggs inside their body until the pups hatch. And some, like bull and hammerhead sharks, feed their pups through a link a bit like a mammal's umbilical cord.
Sources: Shark Trust: Shark reproduction, NOAA Fisheries: Eight surprising shark facts
Babies and life
A whale shark caught off Taiwan was carrying about 300 young inside her, the biggest litter known for any shark. Each one was roughly half a metre long.
Sources: Florida Museum: Whale shark profile