Endangered
Humphead wrasse
Cheilinus undulatus
Humphead wrasse is a ray-finned fish in the family Labridae (order Perciformes) — Cheilinus undulatus, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
Its color can vary between olive to more vibrant shades of green and purplish-blue, with a pattern of yellow undulating lines or reticulation on the head.
Males, typically larger than females, are capable of reaching up to 229 centimetres (90 in) and weighing up to 191 kilograms (421 lb), but the average length tends to be around 60 centimetres (24 in).
Range and habitat
The humphead wrasses can be found on the east coast of Africa around the mouth of the Red Sea, and in some areas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Juveniles are usually found in shallow, sandy ranges bordering coral reef waters, while adults are found mostly in offshore and deeper areas of coral reefs, typically in outer-reef slopes and channels, but also in lagoons. Local consumption, and its perception as a delicacy to locals and tourists A developing export market for juveniles for the marine aquarium trade The humphead wrasse (Crassilabrus undulatus) is the largest species of wrasse mainly found on coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
The humphead wrasse is long-lived, but has a very slow breeding rate. At certain times of year, adults move to the down-current end of the reef and form local spawning aggregations (groups).
In crisis
The species is one of the top predators of the reef ecosystem, mainly consuming various invertebrate species among them the crown-of-thorns starfish. The humphead wrasse is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red list and in Appendix II of CITES. Its numbers have declined due to multiple threats, among them: Intensive, species-specific removal by the live reef food-fish trade throughout its core range in Southeast Asia.
Humphead wrasse 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 Humphead wrasse, Wikidata item Q179377. 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.
