Nurse shark
Ginglymostoma cirratum
Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Nurse shark: 3.1 m.
Bigger than a car. Grows up to about 3.1 m.
A sleepy-looking bottom dweller with whisker-like feelers on its chin. It often rests in groups under ledges during the day and hunts at night.
The weird bit
A nurse shark sucks in its food. Its suction is among the strongest ever measured in any water animal with a backbone.
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Coral reef, Coast and shallows
- What it eats
- Small fish, stingrays, crustaceans, molluscs and sea urchins, found on the seabed
- How worried are we?
- In trouble (Vulnerable)Assessed in 2019 by the IUCN Red List.