page_title: Pondicherry shark
section_title: Distribution and habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Pondicherry shark / Distribution and habitat
context_page_description: The Pondicherry shark is an extremely rare species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae. A small and stocky gray shark, it grows not much longer than 1 m and has a fairly long, pointed snout. This species can be identified by the shape of its upper teeth, which are strongly serrated near the base and smooth-edged near the tip, and by its first dorsal fin, which is large with a long free rear tip. Furthermore, this shark has prominent black tips on its pectoral fins, second dorsal fin, and caudal fin lower lobe.
  The Pondicherry shark is critically endangered. It was once found throughout Indo-Pacific coastal waters from the Gulf of Oman to New Guinea, and is known to enter fresh water. Fewer than 20 specimens are available for study, and most aspects of its natural history are unknown. It probably feeds on bony fishes, cephalopods, and crustaceans, and gives birth to live young with the embryos forming a placental connection to their mother.
context_section_description: The Pondicherry shark appears to have been broadly distributed in the Indo-Pacific. It may have once been common, as it was reportedly a regular catch off India and Pakistan, but is now extremely rare. Most of the known specimens were collected from India, with more specimens from the Gulf of Oman, Borneo, and Java. There are also less reliable records from the South China Sea, other parts of Southeast Asia such as Vietnam and the Philippines, New Guinea, and northern Australia. This species inhabits inshore waters. Several older sources reported that it could be found in rivers such as the Hooghli River and the Saigon River. These reports may have confused a river shark (Glyphis sp.) for the Pondicherry shark; if accurate, they would suggest this species to be tolerant of low salinity.
caption: Most records of the Pondicherry shark are from the coastal waters of India.
exif: {"Image Make": "", "Image Model": "", "Image XResolution": "532", "Image YResolution": "532", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:02:18 20:36:22", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "158", "Image CustomRendered": "Custom", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "406", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7480", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2832", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2128"}