Sealife guideThe leopard sharkTriakis semifasciata

Last updated on 01/25/2025 at 10:10 PM

Taxonomy

Common name: Leopard shark
French name: Requin léopard
Spanish name: Tiburón leopardo
Scientific name: Triakis semifasciata (Girard, 1855)
Family name: Triakidae
Order name: Carcharhiniformes
Class name: Elasmobranchii

Description

The leopard shark is characterized by its distinctive spotted pattern, which is how it got its name. Its back is dark gray to brown, covered with dark, horseshoe-shaped spots, while its belly is white. Its body is sleek, with a relatively small head in comparison to its body.

The leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata) © Ondřej Prosický | Dreamstime.com

As adults, leopard sharks typically reach a length between 4 and 6 feet with females generally being larger than males.

Geographic range

The leopard shark frequents the coastal waters of North America, from Canada in the north to Baja California in Mexico to the south.

Habitat

The leopard shark lives in the shallow coastal waters of bays and estuaries, where it spends most of its time near the seafloor. The leopard shark can also be found at greater depths.

Diet

The leopard shark is primarily piscivorous, feeding on small fish, squid, rays and other marine organisms it finds near the seafloor. It is considered an opportunistic predator, meaning it easily adapts to different food sources depending on the availability of prey.

Reproduction

The leopard shark is an ovoviviparous species. After a gestation period of about 10 months, the female gives birth to litters of 10 to 30 baby sharks.

A group of leopard sharks swims close to the seafloor in the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary © Yisi Li | Dreamstime.com

Within the same genus

Banded houndshark
(Triakis scyllium)

Discover also

Blacknose shark
(Carcharhinus acronotus)

Bonnethead shark
(Sphyrna tiburo)

Caribbean reef shark
(Carcharhinus perezi)

Lemon shark
(Negaprion brevirostris)

Leopard catshark
(Poroderma pantherinum)

Pelagic thresher shark
(Alopias pelagicus)

Scalloped hammerhead
(Sphyrna lewini)

Tasselled wobbegong
(Eucrossorhinus dasypogon)

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