Lemon shark

The lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris) is a requiem shark with yellowish-brown skin, which gives it its name. Adults usually reach about 2.4 to 3.1 metres long and up to about 90 kilograms, and the largest ever measured was 3.43 metres. It lives in warm, shallow coastal waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. It is often found in shallow subtropical waters.

It has a flat head, a short, broad snout and two dorsal fins of nearly the same size. The IUCN lists it as vulnerable. Lemon sharks are not seen as a big danger to people: only about 10 bites have been recorded, and none was life-threatening.

Nurseries and night hunting

Female lemon sharks give birth to live young, and the pups stay in special nursery areas such as shallow mangrove lagoons. The sharks return to these nursery sites to breed, and Moorea and the Bahamas are well-known study sites.

Lemon sharks often feed at night. Their heads hold electroreceptors, called the ampullae of Lorenzini, that sense the tiny electric signals made by fish, which are their main prey.

Life in a group

Lemon sharks enjoy living in groups, which helps them communicate, court, hunt and stay safe.

The yellow colour is a handy disguise when swimming over a sandy seabed. No one knows exactly how long they live, but typical sharks are 25 to 30 years old, and in 2023 the oldest lemon shark in captivity died at age 40. It is a requiem shark in the family Carcharhinidae.

On the globe

The model shows a yellow-brown lemon shark in the shallow lagoons of Moorea, a famous study site.