Tiger shark
Galeocerdo cuvier
Size, compared with you
You: 1.7 m. Tiger shark: 5.5 m.
Bigger than a car. Grows up to about 5.5 m.
A big, striped shark of warm seas. Faint stripes on its sides fade as it grows up. It will eat almost anything, and its jaws can crack open turtle shells.
The weird bit
Tiger sharks have the widest menu of any shark, and they have been found with all sorts of things in their stomachs. That earned them the nickname "garbage can of the sea".
Quick facts
- Where it lives
- Coast and shallows, Coral reef, Open ocean0 to 800 m down
- What it eats
- Fish, turtles, seabirds, rays, other sharks, dolphins, squid and carrion
- How worried are we?
- Close to trouble (Near Threatened)Assessed in 2018 by the IUCN Red List.