Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Tiger sharks are found in many sub­trop­i­cal and trop­i­cal wa­ters, pri­mar­ily from 45°N to 32°S. Tiger sharks have been sighted from the east­ern coast of North Amer­ica to the east­ern coast of Brazil. This in­cludes the coasts of south­ern North Amer­ica, Mex­ico, and Latin Amer­ica along the Gulf of Mex­ico. Tiger sharks also pop­u­late the coasts of China, India, Africa, Japan, and many is­lands of the Pa­cific Ocean. (Drig­gers III, et al., 2008; Knee­bone, et al., 2008; Simpfendor­fer, 2005; Wirs­ing, et al., 2007)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native
• oriental
  • native
• ethiopian
  • native
• neotropical
  • native
• australian
  • native
• indian ocean
  • native
• atlantic ocean
  • native
• pacific ocean
  • native

• Other Geographic Terms
• cosmopolitan

Habi­tat

Tiger sharks are a salt­wa­ter species. Al­though they pre­fer the sea grass ecosys­tems of the costal areas, they oc­ca­sion­ally in­habit other areas due to prey avail­abil­ity. Tiger sharks spend ap­prox­i­mately 36 % of their time in shal­low coastlne habi­tats (Hei­thaus et al., 2002), gen­er­ally at depths of 2.5 to 145 m. This species, how­ever, has been doc­u­mented sev­eral kilo­me­ters from the shal­low areas and at depths up to 350 m. Fe­males are ob­served in shal­low areas more often than males. Tiger sharks have also been doc­u­mented in river es­tu­ar­ies and har­bors ("Tiger Shark (Ga­le­o­cerdo cu­vier)", 2010; Hei­thaus, et al., 2002; Hei­thaus, et al., 2006; Simpfendor­fer, 2005)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical
• saltwater or marine

• Aquatic Biomes
• pelagic
• reef
• coastal

• Range depth

  2.5 to 350 m

  8.20 to 1148.29 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Tiger sharks are one of the largest car­ni­vores in the ocean. Ju­ve­niles have tiger-like stripes, which fade as they grow older. Tiger sharks are blue or green in color with a light yel­low or white un­der-belly. This spe­ices has a large blunt nose on the end of a wedge-shaped head. Tiger sharks have ser­rated teeth, mak­ing it easy to tear flesh and crack the bones and shells of their prey. They have a het­e­ro­cer­cal tail, mean­ing the dor­sal lobe of the cau­dal fin is longer than the ven­tral lobe. Adults range from 3.25 to 4.25 m in length, al­though tiger sharks of 6 to 7.5 m in length have been doc­u­mented. Fe­male tiger sharks are on av­er­age 2.92 m in length and are smaller than males, which are on av­er­age 3.20 m in length. Adult tiger sharks typ­i­cally weigh 385 to 635 kg, with largest sharks reach­ing 862 kg. ("Tiger Shark: Ga­le­o­cerdo Cu­vier", 2010; Hei­thaus, et al., 2007; Pratt, Jr., 1988; Read, 2010)

• Other Physical Features
• ectothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger

• Range mass

  385 to 862 kg

  848.02 to 1898.68 lb

• Range length

  3.25 to 7.5 m

  10.66 to 24.61 ft

• Average length

  females 2.92 m; males 3.20 m

  ft

De­vel­op­ment

Em­bryos of tiger sharks are fer­til­ized in­ter­nally. A yolk sac forms around the em­bryos to pro­vide nec­es­sary nu­tri­ents dur­ing the 13 to 16 month ges­ta­tion pe­riod. As the yolk be­gins to run out near the end of the ges­ta­tion pe­riod, the em­bryo draws nu­tri­ents di­rectly from the mother. At birth, tiger sharks are fully de­vel­oped and in­de­pen­dent. They are born with tiger-like stripes on their back and a lightly col­ored yel­low or white belly which al­lows them to blend in with the en­vi­ron­ment. These stripes fade as the ju­ve­niles reach adult­hood, which is around 6 to 8 years. Males reach ma­tu­rity ear­lier than fe­males. ("Tiger Shark (Ga­le­o­cerdo cu­vier)", 2010)

Re­pro­duc­tion

Tiger sharks are polyg­y­nan­drous, mean­ing males and fe­males have mul­ti­ple mates; they do not pair-bond at any time. Not much is known re­gard­ing the the be­hav­iors of find­ing, at­tract­ing, and de­fend­ing mates of tiger sharks. (Gru­ber and Myr­berg, Jr., 1977; Pratt, Jr., 1988; Whit­ney and Crow, 2007)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Male tiger sharks reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity when they reach an av­er­age length of 292 cm, whereas fe­males reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity when 330 to 345 cm in length. Fe­males mate once every three years. Breed­ing sea­sons dif­fer in the north­ern and south­ern hemi­spheres. In the north­ern hemi­sphere, fe­males delay fer­til­iza­tion until March or May in order to give birth be­tween May and June of the fol­low­ing year. In the south­ern hemi­sphere, fe­males delay mat­ing until No­vem­ber or Jan­u­ary in order to give birth be­tween Feb­ru­ary and March of the fol­low­ing year. Tiger sharks are one of the few species that are ovo­vi­vip­a­rous. Fe­males give birth to 10 to 80 pups per lit­ter after a ges­ta­tion pe­riod of 16 months. Many of these pups will not sur­vive to adult­hood. Pups weigh 3 to 6 kg at birth. (Pratt, Jr., 1988; Whit­ney and Crow, 2007)

Male tiger sharks have di­a­met­ric testes, which are ca­pa­ble of syn­the­siz­ing a larger amount of sperm than ra­dial or com­pound testes. The fe­males have ex­ter­nal ovaries that ap­pear on the epig­o­nal organ, which is a pri­mary lym­phoid tis­sue in elas­mo­branchs. (Pratt, Jr., 1988; Whit­ney and Crow, 2007)

• Key Reproductive Features
• seasonal breeding
• sexual
• fertilization
  • internal
• ovoviviparous
• delayed fertilization

• Breeding interval

  every three years

• Breeding season

  Northern Hemisphere: March-May to April-June of following year. Southern Hemisphere: November-December

• Range number of offspring

  3 to 80

• Average number of offspring

  35-55

• Range gestation period

  13 to 16 months

• Range time to independence

  1 (low) minutes

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  8 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
  Sex: female

  2555 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  7 years

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  1825 days

  AnAge

Fe­male tiger sharks typ­i­cally gives birth in a nurs­ery, which pro­vides pro­tec­tion dur­ing birth and to the young di­rectly after birth. Tiger sharks are born in­de­pen­dent, and moth­ers do not help their pups to find food, shel­ter or to sur­vive. Males play no role in the lives of their off­spring. Pups, how­ever, are born with traits that help them sur­vive with­out par­ents, in­clud­ing cam­ou­flage pat­tern­ing, teeth to help cap­ture prey, and speed to avoid preda­tors. (Drig­gers III, et al., 2008)

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The av­er­age lifes­pan of tiger sharks in the wild is 27 years, though some may live to 50 years of age. Tiger sharks in cap­tiv­ity do not live as long, a max­i­mum of 17 to 20 years. In cap­tiv­ity, this species tends to die of star­va­tion rather than old age, as food that is al­ready dead is less ap­peal­ing to tiger sharks. (Branstet­ter, et al., 1987; Gar­cia, et al., 2008; Knee­bone, et al., 2008)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  50 (high) years

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  20 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  27 years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: captivity

  17 (high) years

Be­hav­ior

Tiger sharks are a noc­tur­nal preda­tors and are soli­tary ex­cept dur­ing the mat­ing sea­sons or while com­mu­nally feed­ing on large car­casses. Dur­ing these group feed­ings, tiger sharks have a loose so­cial hi­er­ar­chy where larger sharks feed first. Smaller sharks cir­cle around the car­cass until the larger sharks are full, then move in to feed. Vi­o­lence is min­i­mal dur­ing these scav­eng­ing feasts. In tiger sharks, the het­e­ro­cer­cal tail, or cau­dal fin, is the pri­mary source of propul­sion. The cau­dal fin pro­duces a down­ward thrust of water be­hind the cen­ter of bal­ance in a shark, which should cause its head to turn up­wards. How­ever, be­cause the tail also moves side to side, it keeps the head from turn­ing up­wards. Be­cause of this, tiger sharks move in an S-shaped fash­ion. (Es­s­apian, 1962; Gru­ber and Myr­berg, Jr., 1977; Hei­thaus, 2001; Tang and New­bound, 2004; Thom­son and Simanek, 1977)

• Key Behaviors
• natatorial
• nocturnal
• motile
• nomadic
• solitary
• dominance hierarchies

• Range territory size

  23 (high) km^2

Home Range

Tiger sharks have very large home ranges. In­di­vid­u­als at­tached with trans­mit­ters swam up to 16 km in a sin­gle day and did not re­turn to that area for close to a year. Tiger sharks have large ter­ri­to­ries of about 23 square kilo­me­ters. (Gru­ber and Myr­berg, Jr., 1977; Hol­land, et al., 1999; Thom­son and Simanek, 1977)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Tiger sharks rely on elec­tro­mag­netic re­cep­tors to per­ceive their en­vi­ron­ment and to hunt prey. Sens­ing or­gans called Am­pul­lae of Loren­zini, lo­cated on the end of their nose, are filled with a jelly-like sub­stance that reads elec­tro­mag­netic sig­nals. These sig­nals are sent from the pores to the sen­sory nerve, and then to the brain. While hunt­ing, tiger sharks uses this abil­ity to de­tect elec­tro­mag­netic sig­nals given off by fish. Tiger sharks also use these or­gans to sense changes in water pres­sure and tem­per­a­ture (Plessis, 2010). Mem­bers of this species also have a lat­eral line on both sides of the body that runs from the gill line to the base of the tail. The lat­eral line reads the vi­bra­tions in the water from the move­ment of other an­i­mals nearby. Am­pul­lae of Loren­zini and lat­eral lines also help de­tect elec­tro­mag­netic sig­nals from other sharks. While com­mu­nally feed­ing on car­casses, sharks give off sig­nals sig­ni­fy­ing dom­i­nance and thus the order in which they feed. (Kalmijn, 2000; Knee­bone, et al., 2008; Plessis, 2010; Tang and New­bound, 2004)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• electric

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• vibrations
• electric
• magnetic

Food Habits

The diet of tiger sharks in­cludes mol­lusks, birds, snakes, crus­taceans, sea tur­tles, and dugongs. Ser­rated teeth give this species the abil­ity to pen­e­trate the shells of sea tur­tles. Tiger sharks often scav­enge dead or in­jured whales, and large tiger sharks can sur­vive sev­eral weeks with­out feed­ing. This species most likely re­lies on stealth rather than strength and speed to catch prey. They are well cam­ou­flaged, al­low­ing them to get within strik­ing range of prey. If prey flee, tiger sharks may back off, not tak­ing part in high-speed pur­suits. How­ever, tiger sharks are ca­pa­ble of short bursts of speed once their prey are within range. (Hei­thaus, et al., 2002; Hei­thaus, 2001)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
  • molluscivore

• Animal Foods
• birds
• mammals
• reptiles
• fish
• carrion
• mollusks
• other marine invertebrates

Pre­da­tion

Tiger sharks are some of the largest preda­tors in the ocean and have few species feed on them. Some ju­ve­nile tiger sharks, how­ever, fall prey to other sharks. Fe­male tiger sharks gives birth in a nurs­ery, which pro­vides pro­tec­tion dur­ing the birthing process and to pups in the ab­sence of par­ents. The col­oration of tiger sharks pro­vides cam­ou­flage against preda­tors as well. Hu­mans also fish for tiger sharks. (Cressey and Lach­ner, 1970; Drig­gers III, et al., 2008; Tang and New­bound, 2004)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • humans Homo sapiens

Ecosys­tem Roles

As top preda­tors in their ecosys­tem, it is pos­si­ble that tiger sharks con­trol pop­u­la­tions of prey species, al­though this has not been ver­i­fied. Tiger sharks also serve as a host for re­moras, which are small suck­er­fish. Tiger sharks and re­moras share a com­men­sal re­la­tion­ship: re­moras at­tach to tiger sharks near the un­der­belly, and use the shark for trans­porta­tion and pro­tec­tion. Re­moras also feed on ma­te­ri­als dropped by tiger sharks. Re­cently, cope­pods, specif­i­cally sea louse, have been dis­cov­ered around the eyes of tiger sharks in Aus­tralia. (Dill, et al., 2003; Hei­thaus, et al., 2002; Hei­thaus, et al., 2006; Wirs­ing, et al., 2007)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Tiger sharks are a pop­u­lar game­fish, which are typ­i­cally cap­tured and re­leased for sport. They are very strong, fast and per­form aer­ial acts when hooked. Fish­ing for these sharks is tir­ing, as tiger sharks are not quickly or eas­ily ex­hausted. In some states, per­mits such as a salt­wa­ter fish­ing li­cense allow fish­er­men to col­lect the shark as a tro­phy. ("Fish­ing for shark in the Florida Keys", 2010; "Recre­ational fish­ing reg­u­la­tions for Vir­ginia's ma­rine wa­ters", 2010)

• Positive Impacts
• food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Al­though very un­likely, tiger sharks enter shal­low, pop­u­lated areas of coast and at­tack hu­mans on rare oc­ca­sions. (Gru­ber and Myr­berg, Jr., 1977; Hei­thaus, et al., 2006)

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • bites or stings

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Cur­rently, the total num­ber of tiger sharks world­wide is un­known. How­ever, they are listed as near threat­ened on the IUCN Red List. One major ini­tia­tive to pro­tect this species has been the lim­i­ta­tion of the num­ber of sharks taken by fish­er­man (i.e., one per ves­sel with a spe­cific li­cense). ("Recre­ational fish­ing reg­u­la­tions for Vir­ginia's ma­rine wa­ters", 2010)

• IUCN Red List

  Near Threatened
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Near Threatened
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Kyah Draper (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Gail Mc­Cormick (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

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2010. "Recre­ational fish­ing reg­u­la­tions for Vir­ginia's ma­rine wa­ters" (On-line). Ac­cessed De­cem­ber 01, 2010 at http://​www.​mrc.​virginia.​gov/​regulations/​swrecfishingrules.​shtm.

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