Blacktip Reef Shark

The blacktip reef shark is a small, pale grayish-brown shark of shallow Indo-Pacific reefs, from South Africa and the Red Sea to Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Pacific islands, identified by the black tips on its fins, especially the first dorsal and tail fins, and a white stripe along its flanks. Most individuals reach about 1.6 meters, with a maximum near 2 meters. It keeps an unusually small home range, often under a square kilometer, showing strong fidelity to one stretch of reef for years, and it hunts small fish, cephalopods, and crustaceans, sometimes herding schooling fish into shallow water for an easier catch.