Whale shark (Rhincodon typus)
Whale sharks are the largest fish in the world, the longest ever recorded being some 13.5m in length. Fortunately they are filter feeders and are harmless to humans.
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Ocean giants
Great Rift: Africa's wild heart
The annual gathering of whale sharks off the Djibouti coast.
The annual gathering of whale sharks off the Djibouti coast.
Life on Ningaloo Reef
Wild Down Under
Dinner guests arrive to join Ningaloo Reef's feast.
Dinner guests arrive to join Ningaloo Reef's feast.
Whale shark feeding
Planet Earth
The world's largest fish survives on the smallest organism... or does it?
The world's largest fish survives on the smallest organism... or does it?
Featured in the following TV programmes
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Catch Up
Great Rift: Africa's wild heart: Water
Looking at the colourful wildlife of East Africa's lakes and rivers.
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Archived
Planet Earth: Ocean Deep
David Attenborough narrates the last episode in the series about the wonders of our planet
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Archived
Wild Down Under: SOUTHERN SEAS
The Great Barrier Reef and the dramatic coastline of Australia and New Zealand.
About the Whale shark
The whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is a slow moving filter feeding shark, the largest living fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 12.65 metres (41.50 ft) and a weight of more than 21.5 tonnes (47,000 lb), but unconfirmed claims report considerably larger whale sharks. This distinctively-marked fish is the only member of its genus Rhincodon and its family, Rhincodontidae (called Rhinodontes before 1984), which belongs to the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. The shark is found in tropical and warm oceans, lives in the open sea with a lifespan of about 70 years. The species originated about 60 million years ago. Although whale sharks have very large mouths, they feed mainly, though not exclusively, on plankton, microscopic plants and animals, although the BBC program Planet Earth filmed a whale shark feeding on a school of small fish.
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The wildlife of Life
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Scientific Classification
Order: Orectolobiformes
Family: Rhincodontidae
Genus: Rhincodon
Species: Whale shark (typus)
Where can I see them?
They can be found in the following habitats:
Conservation Status
The Whale shark is Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)
- EX - Extinct
- EW
- CR - Threatened
- EN - Threatened
- VU - Threatened
- NT
- LC - Least concern
Population trend: Decreasing
Year assessed: 2005
Elsewhere on the web
- Animal Diversity Web (animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu)
- ARKive: Images of Life on Earth (arkive.org)
- Fishbase facts (fishbase.org)
- Florida Museum of Natural History: fact file (flmnh.ufl.edu)
- IUCN Red List information (iucnredlist.org)
- Utila Whale Shark Research: current projects (utilawhalesharkresearch.com)
- Whale shark (wikipedia.org)
Site links
BBC links
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