Sand tiger shark
Amazing fact
Sand tiger sharks gulp air and hold it in their stomachs to stay buoyant.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Sand tiger sharks gulp air and hold it in their stomachs to stay buoyant.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Sand tiger shark
- Scientific name
- Carcharias taurus
- Japanese name
- シロワニ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Chondrichthyes
- Order
- Lamniformes
- Family
- Odontaspididae
- Genus
- Carcharias
How the Sand tiger shark lives
During the day, they stay near caves and cliffs. They eat fish, rays, crabs, squid and other prey. They sometimes hunt together, herding fish into small groups before attacking.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- Total length: 3 m or more海遊館
- Range
- South of Sagami Bay to the Ryukyu Islands, Ogasawara Islands, and temperate and tropical regions except the eastern Pacific鳥羽水族館
- Conservation status in Japan
- Endangered (EN)Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Marine Red List (2017)
Where the Sand tiger shark has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- シロワニ
- 简体中文
- 沙虎鲨
- 繁體中文
- 錐齒鯊
- 한국어
- 샌드타이거상어
- Español
- Escalandrún
- Français
- Requin Taureau
- Deutsch
- Sandtigerhai
- Português (Brasil)
- Tubarão-mangona
- Italiano
- Squalo toro
- العربية
- قرش الرمل الببري
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Hiu harimau pasir
- Русский
- Обыкновенная песчаная акула
- Türkçe
- Kaplan kum köpek balığı
- বাংলা
- বালু-বাঘ হাঙর
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 海遊館 — シロワニChecked: 2026-11-03
- 鳥羽水族館 — シロワニChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Carcharias taurusChecked: 2026-11-03
- Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Marine Red List (2017)Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
The conservation status in Japan is the category in the Red Lists of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, which assess the risk of extinction for wild animals in Japan.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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