Endangered
Grey reef shark
Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos
Grey reef shark is a shark or ray in the family Carcharhinidae (order Carcharhiniformes) — Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
The grey reef shark has a streamlined, moderately stout body with a long, blunt snout and large, round eyes. The first dorsal fin is medium-sized, and no ridge runs between the second dorsal fin and it. The coloration is grey above, sometimes with a bronze sheen, and white below.
The maximum reported length is 2.6 m (8.5 ft) and the maximum reported weight is 33.7 kg (74 lb).
Range and habitat
The grey reef shark is native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In the Indian Ocean, it occurs from South Africa to India, among them Madagascar and nearby islands, the Red Sea, and the Maldives. In the Pacific Ocean, it is found from Southern China to northern Australia and New Zealand, among them the Gulf of Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
One of the most common reef sharks in the Indo-Pacific, it is found as far east as Easter Island and as far west as South Africa.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
The consumptive influence of grey reef sharks on reef fish communities is likely to vary depending on whether sharks forage within the reef environment, or on pelagic resources (like they have been observed to do at Palmyra Atoll).
In crisis
Most individuals are less than 1.88 m (6.2 ft) long. The grey reef shark is a fast-swimming, agile predator that feeds primarily on free-swimming bony fishes and cephalopods. During the day, these sharks often form groups of five to 20 individuals near coral reef drop-offs, splitting up in the evening as the sharks begin to hunt.
The grey reef shark was the first shark species known to perform a threat display, a stereotypical behavior warning that it is prepared to attack. Grey reef sharks often do so if they are followed or cornered by divers to indicate they perceive a threat.
Grey reef shark is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Grey reef shark, Wikidata item Q163523. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
