White-spotted Bamboo Shark
Chiloscyllium plagiosum
White-spotted bamboo sharks are extremely resilient little sharks. Topping out at about 3.5 feet long, they take full advantage of their size and long, cylindrical shape to hide out amidst the crevices of coral reefs or mangroves. They nestle in large groups of fellow bamboo sharks, seeming to find safety in the protection of their numbers and their shallow habitat.
They use suction feeding to feed on very small creatures that are benthic (living on or near the ocean floor), expelling water or even sand out of their gills during this process.
SPECIES IN DETAIL
White-spotted Bamboo Shark
Chiloscyllium plagiosum
CONSERVATION STATUS: Near threatened
CLIMATE CHANGE:
At the Aquarium
Shark Lagoon
Geographic Distribution
Shallow, coastal waters across the Indo-West Pacific (from Southern India to Southern Japan), including Papua New Guinea and the Indo-Malay Archipelago. Very abundant off the coasts of Taiwan and Malaysia.
Habitat
These sharks live in shallow coastal waters, generally rich in protective features that they can nestle in for protection. Mangroves and shallow inshore coral reefs both provide the kinds of protection these sharks seek, as they rest during the day in the crevices within. While they typically inhabit very shallow waters, they’ve been spotted as far down as 50 meters.
Physical Characteristics
White-spotted bamboo sharks are small – only getting up to about 3.5 feet long at the biggest – and have relatively slender bodies. They’re shaped like cylinders with tails that get thinner and flatter toward the end. These sharks have big spiracles — openings that are used for breathing — located behind and below their eyes. Their nostrils (which are located behind the tip of their rounded snout) have barbels and grooves. Their dorsal fins are large and flexible relative to their overall size.
Like brown-banded bamboo sharks, they have vertical bands going across their bodies from their head down to the tips of their tails but they are lighter in color. As their name suggests, these sharks are also dotted with white spots all along their bodies.
Size
Up to a little over one meter (3-3.5 feet).
Diet
White-spotted bamboo sharks typically eat small benthic creatures, meaning animals that are on or near the sea floor. This can include animals like worms, small fishes, crustaceans, and even sponges.
These little sharks eat using a suction motion with their mouths, quickly inhaling their food. To avoid getting a big belly full of water with each suction event, they expel the water out of their gills.
Because white-spotted bamboo sharks can “perch” on their pectoral fins, scientists know that they can likely control these fins more effectively than many other types of sharks. Some researchers therefore think that white-spotted bamboo sharks may use their pectoral fins to help facilitate their suction feeding behavior. Moving their fins a certain way during a meal may help transport food through their mouths, creating enough pressure for water to act like a “tongue” to move their meal into their digestive system.
White-spotted bamboo sharks also use their jaws while they’re suction feeding. Even though we can’t typically see their mouths (since their mouths are on the underside of their bodies, as is typical with benthic feeders), some researchers have noticed that these sharks depress their lower jaw to expand the size of their mouth to suck in food. At the same time, their upper jaw everts, or turns inside out, to maximize the size of the food these creatures can eat, though still proportionally small to the shark’s size. Sand can be seen flushing out of their gills as they enthusiastically eat their food.
Reproduction
These sharks are oviparous, meaning that they lay eggs that hatch outside their bodies. Sometimes, these eggs are fertilized by male sharks; other times, white-spotted bamboo sharks are born from parthenogenesis, a form of asexual reproduction from an unfertilized egg.
Usually, shark offspring produced from parthenogenesis cannot themselves reproduce: that is, if shark A lays offspring A from parthenogenesis, offspring A will not be able to produce any offspring of her own. However, in at least one instance, scientists have genetically confirmed an instance of a white-spotted bamboo shark hatched from asexual reproduction produced viable offspring of her own.
Behavior
Unlike other types of sharks, white-spotted bamboo sharks don’t need to swim in order to pump water over their gills and breathe. Instead, they have special adaptations called spiracles, which are openings behind their eyes that pump water over their gills even while they’re lying still. This way, these sharks can cluster together for safety while they rest.
These sharks tend to nestle together in the reef crevices in shallow inshore coral reef and mangrove habitats. During the day, they spend most of their time huddled together in the safety of these crevices, generally emerging at night – this is called being nocturnal.
Adaptation
Because of these sharks’ long and slender bodies – along with their dark coloration and sand-like spots – they’re very well-suited to clustering together for safety in the oddly-shaped crevices of coral and mangrove habitats.
Like other sharks, white-spotted bamboo sharks are able to sense electricity using special electroreceptors called the ampullae of Lorenzini. With this ability, they can find food and avoid predators because living creatures give off electricity when they move and when their hearts beat.
Research has also been done to see if white-spotted bamboo sharks can survive conditions caused by climate change and associated ocean acidification. Evidence in a lab setting suggests that they have the potential for resilience to climate change stressors even in their eggs. Although another study has shown that long term exposure to acidic conditions can be detrimental to their growth, more research is needed to understand the full extent of exposure to these changing conditions. Scientists are looking to resilient animals like the white-spotted bamboo shark for clues on how animals can combat the impacts of climate change.
Longevity
In aquariums, these sharks have been known to live as long as 25 years. How long they tend to survive in the ocean is less well-known, but their relatives, the brown-banded bamboo sharks, have an upper estimated age of 14 years in the ocean.
Conservation
White-spotted bamboo sharks are considered near threatened by the IUCN. The biggest threats to their population health seems to be overfishing (with these sharks caught as bycatch) and trawling along their habitats. Fishing pressure across the range of the white-spotted bamboo shark may continue to pose a threat to the species.
The reduction of coastal and mangrove wetlands, which provide protection and survival to white-spotted bamboo sharks and countless other species, also seems to be negatively impacting their ability to thrive. Destruction to seagrass beds and the degradation of coral reefs due to climate change and related human activities may also have a negative impact on these sharks’ ability to thrive as a species.
While catch rates are sometimes monitored to get an idea of how their species is doing as a whole, there are currently no specific efforts to protect white-spotted bamboo sharks in their habitats. Regulations against pollution and overfishing may positively impact their chances of success as a species, but currently conservation efforts are not specifically focused on these sharks.
Special Notes
These creatures don’t have a muscular tongue, so instead, they use their jaws and pectoral girdle to create a “hydrodynamic tongue” while feeding — a special current of water that guides their food along through their mouth and into their esophagus.
SPECIES IN DETAIL | Print full entry
White-spotted Bamboo Shark
Chiloscyllium plagiosum
CONSERVATION STATUS: Near threatened
CLIMATE CHANGE:
Shark Lagoon
Shallow, coastal waters across the Indo-West Pacific (from Southern India to Southern Japan), including Papua New Guinea and the Indo-Malay Archipelago. Very abundant off the coasts of Taiwan and Malaysia.
These sharks live in shallow coastal waters, generally rich in protective features that they can nestle in for protection. Mangroves and shallow inshore coral reefs both provide the kinds of protection these sharks seek, as they rest during the day in the crevices within. While they typically inhabit very shallow waters, they’ve been spotted as far down as 50 meters.
White-spotted bamboo sharks are small – only getting up to about 3.5 feet long at the biggest – and have relatively slender bodies. They’re shaped like cylinders with tails that get thinner and flatter toward the end. These sharks have big spiracles — openings that are used for breathing — located behind and below their eyes. Their nostrils (which are located behind the tip of their rounded snout) have barbels and grooves. Their dorsal fins are large and flexible relative to their overall size.
Like brown-banded bamboo sharks, they have vertical bands going across their bodies from their head down to the tips of their tails but they are lighter in color. As their name suggests, these sharks are also dotted with white spots all along their bodies.
Up to a little over one meter (3-3.5 feet).
White-spotted bamboo sharks typically eat small benthic creatures, meaning animals that are on or near the sea floor. This can include animals like worms, small fishes, crustaceans, and even sponges.
These little sharks eat using a suction motion with their mouths, quickly inhaling their food. To avoid getting a big belly full of water with each suction event, they expel the water out of their gills.
Because white-spotted bamboo sharks can “perch” on their pectoral fins, scientists know that they can likely control these fins more effectively than many other types of sharks. Some researchers therefore think that white-spotted bamboo sharks may use their pectoral fins to help facilitate their suction feeding behavior. Moving their fins a certain way during a meal may help transport food through their mouths, creating enough pressure for water to act like a “tongue” to move their meal into their digestive system.
White-spotted bamboo sharks also use their jaws while they’re suction feeding. Even though we can’t typically see their mouths (since their mouths are on the underside of their bodies, as is typical with benthic feeders), some researchers have noticed that these sharks depress their lower jaw to expand the size of their mouth to suck in food. At the same time, their upper jaw everts, or turns inside out, to maximize the size of the food these creatures can eat, though still proportionally small to the shark’s size. Sand can be seen flushing out of their gills as they enthusiastically eat their food.
These sharks are oviparous, meaning that they lay eggs that hatch outside their bodies. Sometimes, these eggs are fertilized by male sharks; other times, white-spotted bamboo sharks are born from parthenogenesis, a form of asexual reproduction from an unfertilized egg.
Usually, shark offspring produced from parthenogenesis cannot themselves reproduce: that is, if shark A lays offspring A from parthenogenesis, offspring A will not be able to produce any offspring of her own. However, in at least one instance, scientists have genetically confirmed an instance of a white-spotted bamboo shark hatched from asexual reproduction produced viable offspring of her own.
Unlike other types of sharks, white-spotted bamboo sharks don’t need to swim in order to pump water over their gills and breathe. Instead, they have special adaptations called spiracles, which are openings behind their eyes that pump water over their gills even while they’re lying still. This way, these sharks can cluster together for safety while they rest.
These sharks tend to nestle together in the reef crevices in shallow inshore coral reef and mangrove habitats. During the day, they spend most of their time huddled together in the safety of these crevices, generally emerging at night – this is called being nocturnal.
Because of these sharks’ long and slender bodies – along with their dark coloration and sand-like spots – they’re very well-suited to clustering together for safety in the oddly-shaped crevices of coral and mangrove habitats.
Like other sharks, white-spotted bamboo sharks are able to sense electricity using special electroreceptors called the ampullae of Lorenzini. With this ability, they can find food and avoid predators because living creatures give off electricity when they move and when their hearts beat.
Research has also been done to see if white-spotted bamboo sharks can survive conditions caused by climate change and associated ocean acidification. Evidence in a lab setting suggests that they have the potential for resilience to climate change stressors even in their eggs. Although another study has shown that long term exposure to acidic conditions can be detrimental to their growth, more research is needed to understand the full extent of exposure to these changing conditions. Scientists are looking to resilient animals like the white-spotted bamboo shark for clues on how animals can combat the impacts of climate change.
In aquariums, these sharks have been known to live as long as 25 years. How long they tend to survive in the ocean is less well-known, but their relatives, the brown-banded bamboo sharks, have an upper estimated age of 14 years in the ocean.
White-spotted bamboo sharks are considered near threatened by the IUCN. The biggest threats to their population health seems to be overfishing (with these sharks caught as bycatch) and trawling along their habitats. Fishing pressure across the range of the white-spotted bamboo shark may continue to pose a threat to the species.
The reduction of coastal and mangrove wetlands, which provide protection and survival to white-spotted bamboo sharks and countless other species, also seems to be negatively impacting their ability to thrive. Destruction to seagrass beds and the degradation of coral reefs due to climate change and related human activities may also have a negative impact on these sharks’ ability to thrive as a species.
While catch rates are sometimes monitored to get an idea of how their species is doing as a whole, there are currently no specific efforts to protect white-spotted bamboo sharks in their habitats. Regulations against pollution and overfishing may positively impact their chances of success as a species, but currently conservation efforts are not specifically focused on these sharks.
These creatures don’t have a muscular tongue, so instead, they use their jaws and pectoral girdle to create a “hydrodynamic tongue” while feeding — a special current of water that guides their food along through their mouth and into their esophagus.