Common thresher shark
Alopias vulpinus
Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Common thresher shark: 5.7 m.
Bigger than a car. Grows up to about 5.7 m.
A shark with an amazing tail. The top lobe is almost as long as the rest of its body. It lives in warm and temperate seas and chases schools of small fish.
The weird bit
A thresher whips its long tail through a school of fish to stun them, then comes back round to eat.
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Coast and shallows, Open ocean0 to 550 m down
- What it eats
- Mostly schooling fish such as anchovies, sardines and herring, plus squid
- How worried are we?
- In trouble (Vulnerable)Assessed in 2018 by the IUCN Red List.