THE ANIMAL FILES

Oceanic whitetip shark

Carcharhinus longimanus

Long rounded fins belong to an open-ocean cruiser.

The oceanic whitetip shark is associated with warm offshore waters and the upper ocean. Its long rounded fins often carry pale tips. Fish, squid and carrion draw an animal that is usually solitary into temporary feeding gatherings.[1]

Follow the evidence ↓
Oceanic whitetip shark
Image: The original uploader was OldakQuill at English Wikipedia. · Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
The fin silhouette
Pectoral and dorsal fins are long and rounded.[1]
Far from the shore
Offshore upper waters provide typical habitat.[1]
Food gathers the sharks
Temporary groups form at food sources.[1]

The fin silhouette

Wing-like pectoral fins and a prominent rounded dorsal fin define the outline. Many fins have white tips or mottling, but young animals can also have dark markings. Colour and shape should be read together rather than reduced to the word white.[1]

Far from the shore

The species favours open-ocean settings and spends much time in upper layers. Occasional near-island or narrow-shelf records do not make it a reef-bound shark.[1]

Food gathers the sharks

Squid and bony fish are major prey, with other foods including marine-mammal carcasses. Usually solitary sharks can converge when food is concentrated. This is a feeding aggregation, not evidence that every shark belongs to a permanent coordinated pack.[1]

A COMMON MIX-UP

Does a feeding group prove a permanent shark pack?

No. Solitary individuals can temporarily converge on a shared food source.[1]

TRY A LITTLE REASONING

Why could a carcass attract several sharks without cooperative hunting?

Reveal the explanation

Each can independently locate and use the same concentrated resource.[1]

Sources & editorial notes

Adapted and translated from the cited Wikipedia revisions, with source-linked reasoning. Image credit and licence are listed separately above.

Adapted and translated from Wikipedia contributors; exact revisions are linked below. CC BY-SA 4.0

  1. Wikipedia contributors — Oceanic whitetip shark (cited revision)
  2. NCBI Taxonomy — Carcharhinus longimanus

Last fact check:

One discovery leads to another

Bull sharkEntering a river requires a shark to change how it handles salt and water.Carcharhinus leucas ↗Blue sharkBlue above, pale below: an ocean swimmer has more than one colour.Prionace glauca ↗Tiger sharkSlow cruising does not reveal the whole hunting repertoire.Galeocerdo cuvier ↗