Spotted wobbegong
Orectolobus maculatus
Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Spotted wobbegong: 3.2 m.
Bigger than a car. Grows up to about 3.2 m.
A flat, blotchy shark from Australian waters that looks like a patch of seaweed-covered rock. It lies still on the bottom and ambushes whatever swims by.
The weird bit
Its skin is covered in electric-sensing pores, and the frilly beard around its mouth helps it blend into the seabed.
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Coral reef, Coast and shallows0 to 218 m down
- What it eats
- Fish, crabs, lobsters and octopus, caught by ambush at night
- How worried are we?
- Doing okay (Least Concern)Assessed in 2015 by the IUCN Red List.