The black-headed reef shark is a typical inhabitant of coral reefs and shallow waters. This small fish rarely gives people trouble, but can sometimes be very dangerous. People eat their meat, kept in aquariums and aquariums. Due to frequent capture, the species is considered “close to vulnerable”.
Shark among other cartilaginous fish
The black-feathered reef, or Malgash night shark, is a member of the gray shark family. Many of its representatives are very dangerous and rarely miss the opportunity to try human meat. The family includes such "thunderstorms of the seas" as blunt, blue and tiger. All of them are famous cannibals.
Compared to them, the Malgash reef sharks are quite peaceful. They rarely attack just like that and bite mostly especially annoying divers whose limbs are confused with their usual prey. They become dangerous and aggressive if they learn injured fish or when they are hunting. But even then the predator predominantly only bites, so a fatal outcome during its attack is a rarity.
The Malgash shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) is easy to distinguish from others, but you can easily be confused with the usual black-footed shark (Carcharhinus limbatus). Both species are small in size, have dark spots on the ends of the fins and tail, prefer shallow water. But the habitat of ordinary black feathers is much wider. Unlike the reef, it also inhabits the Atlantic coast of Africa, America and Europe, lives on the Pacific coast of Central and South America.
Reef black-headed shark: description
The body of these sharks is elongated. They are excellent swimmers and are capable of achieving great speed. On average, their size does not exceed 1.5 meters. The record holder among black reef sharks reached from 1.8 to 2 (in different sources) meters in length. The weight of the animal ranges from ten kilograms.
The coloring of this species is typical for gray sharks. Their dorsal part is gray-brown, and the abdominal part is light, almost white. The tips of the fins and tail are black, and a white stripe is clearly visible below the black spot.
They have a short and wide oval-shaped snout. The pectoral fins of the black-feathered reef shark taper towards the end and are rounded by a sickle towards the tail. They are long and make up about 20% of the body size of the shark. The first dorsal fin is also long, the second is much smaller than it. Between them there is no crest or other outgrowths. The first fin on the back does not taper too much toward the tip, bending toward the tail.
The eyes of the nocturnal Malgash shark are rather large and elongated in the horizontal direction. Nostrils surround the skin folds. They have up to 13 upper and up to 12 lower teeth of a triangular shape. At the end, they have many small notches. They help cut a large victim or tear pieces of meat from it.
Habitat
The black-headed reef shark inhabits the subtropical and tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. It is found off the east coast of Africa and Madagascar, in the Red Sea, distributed along the coasts of South and Southeast Asia and nearby islands, on the west and east coasts of Australia and the waters of Micronesia.
Malgash sharks rarely drop below 80 meters, mostly staying at depths of up to 30 meters. They live in salty waters and food-rich reef areas. They can go on reef platforms, where water barely covers their back.
Black-reef sharks also appear in slightly brackish waters, swimming in river estuaries or coastal lagoons, lakes and shallow mangroves. Some individuals were also seen in fresh Malaysian reservoirs.
Food
Like most other sharks, black-feathered reefs are predators. Their main prey are bony fish of the class of ray-finned. Both medium-sized animals (30-50 cm) and rather large representatives, the size of which can exceed one meter, become a victim of sharks.
The predator's diet includes mullet, groupers, shrapnel, surgical and terry. However, they are not limited to fish alone, eating small mammals, squid, octopus, cuttlefish, other sharks and stingrays. In coastal waters, they can also hunt sea snakes and rats.
Their eyes are poorly adapted to distinguish small details and colors. They find prey by smell. In addition, they are attracted by the sound of water strikes and movement. They can distinguish not too large objects from a distance of 1-3 meters, but at the same time poorly identify its shape. Perhaps that is why in the stomachs of sharks sometimes they find anything, even stones.
With an abundance of food, in critical situations or with a strong smell of blood, they can fall into "food madness." At such moments, sharks quickly and randomly begin to rush at everything that moves. This sometimes affects divers.
Lifestyle
As the name implies, the night Malgash sharks are more active at night. They live alone or in small groups. To hunt for large victims, they gather in flocks. Some representatives of the black-feathered reef shark are characterized by attachment to a particular area. They occupy the territory they like and live within it for several years.
On sandbanks they rarely appear. During the day, they are constantly “on duty” at the reefs and coasts, swimming back and forth and looking for prey. Often they themselves become the prey of other sharks or large fish, such as groupers.
They are not too bold and prefer to avoid dangers. In a normal situation, when they meet a person, they try to swim away. Once again, deep lagoons do not swim into the ocean - where tiger sharks live.
