#2034 · 🦈 sharks & rays
Sand Tiger Shark
🇳🇱 Zandtijgerhaai ·Carcharias taurus
9 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The sand tiger shark ( Carcharias taurus ), grey nurse shark , spotted ragged-tooth shark , or blue-nurse sand tiger is a species of shark that inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide. It inhabits the continental shelf, from sandy shorelines (hence the name sand tiger shark) and submerged reefs to a depth of around 191 m (627 ft). They dwell in the waters of Japan, Australia, South Africa, the Mediterranean and the east coasts of North and South America. Despite its name,...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 2,982 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1810 (216 years ago).
- Listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
fact sheet
- English
- Sand Tiger Shark
- Nederlands
- Zandtijgerhaai
- scientific name
- Carcharias taurus
- class
- Chondrichthyes
- order
- Lamniformes
- family
- Carchariidae
- IUCN Red List
- CR · critically endangered
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 2,982
- GBIF records in NL
- 3
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1810 by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
IUCN in Dutch: ernstig bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 96768, Wikidata Q625161, GBIF 2420766, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.