Pygmy Reef Blacktip
Basic Information
Anatomy
This shark species is small with a rounded triangular face, and rounded fins. It is often mistaken for being baby sharks of other species due to their small size, with adults only reaching a length of two feet.
Ecology and Habitats
The Pygmy Blacktip is most at home in the extremely shallow tropical reefs around the Shanin Islands.
Dietary Needs and Habits
These sharks are generalists, taking any food that they can find. This is often in the form of mollusks, slow moving fish, and softer shelled clams. They will also hunt in groups to kill larger fish such as parrotfish, although once killed, they can become somewhat food defensive and may bite one another or anything that comes in-between them and their food. Pygmy reef blacktips are also commonly fed by divers and tourists a wide variety of fish, and many docks near fish processing centers on the islands will often discard bones and organs into the water, right to these sharks awaiting food.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Pygmy blacktips are known for being extremely calm with little interspecies competition, tolerating large groups of up to 25 individuals in their vicinity, even when feeding. Juveniles and pregnant females form separate shoals than males and non-pregnant females, who shoal together, with little interaction between the groups. The sharks are not fearful of people at all, with only pregnant females displaying some measure of caution and uncertainty around them.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Pygmy Blacktips are rather social and unfearful of people, aside from pregnant females, and are often interacted with by tourists to Shanai. Several beaches have designated feeding stations and many diving programs allow for people to interact with the sharks underwater, including petting and feeding them. This is often to some controversy, as the sharks can from time to time get over enthusiastic during feeding, and bites (although not life threatening) are not uncommon.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Reefs around the Shanin Islands are this species; most ideal habitat, housing nearly all of their wild population.
Average Intelligence
Pygmy Blacktips are recognized as being decently intelligent, able to remember locations they are fed, hazards, and rumored to recognize particular people. In Shanai, the sharks are known to gather at scheduled feeding times, remembering that they will get food at that particular time, showing they do have some form of planning in order to arrive before being fed.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Like all sharks, the pygmy reef blacktip has an array of electromagnetic sensing cells on their body, allowing them to sense prey moving in the water. They also a have highly sensitive sense of smell.
Lifespan
20-35 years
Conservation Status
Least Concern
Average Length
2 to 3 feet
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
White underbelly with a light gray body, and black tips to the fins
Geographic Distribution
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