Hello my fellow curious critters and welcome back to another Finn Friday! Today we are diving back into the world of the Hammerhead. A couple of weeks ago we learned all about the Bonnethead, but today we are going to learn about the Scalloped Hammerhead! They are one of my favorite species of hammerheads. I just think they are absolutely gorgeous. So go grab a pair of flippers and let’s jump on in!
Where do they live?
Scalloped Hammerhead can be found throughout the world in warm, temperate, and tropical coastal waters. They are a coastal pelagic species, which means they tend to stick to the areas around continental shelves, sometimes venturing out to the deeper waters nearby.
How long do they live?
Scientists believe they live to be over 30 years of age. Scalloped Hammerheads are a pretty shy species, and are really good at avoiding humans, so they can be a bit tricky to study at times. Size wise, males tend to top out at around 7.2-11 ft (219-340 cm) while females top out at around 9.7-11.3 ft (296-346 cm). There have also been reports of individuals reaching lengths of around 14 ft (426.7 cm).
What do they eat?
Scalloped Hammerheads like to snack on fishes, crustaceans, and squids, but their favorite meal to have is stingrays. Scientists believe that they use their wide, flat heads to pin the stingrays to the bottom to make them easier to catch. One of my favorite little fun facts about them is that one individual was once found with 96 (!!!!) venomous stingray barbs (very similar to bumblebee stingers) embedded in their mouth/jaws. How bonkers is that?! Scientists aren’t quite sure how these barbs impact the sharks or how they get rid of them.
What do they like to do?
These guys are super social, especially for sharks. They are frequently found hanging out in groups of hundreds of adults! The one downside to this is that it can make them extremely vulnerable to targeted fishing as their fins are highly sought throughout the world. Around the world, many areas they are known to congregate in have been mostly depleted due to this overfishing. Scalloped Hammerheads aren’t always this social though. They only spend part of the year in these large groups while living a relatively solitarily life for the rest of the year.
Conservation Status:
Unfortunately, because of the overfishing I mentioned earlier, Scalloped Hammerheads are listed as critically endangered with a decreasing population by the IUCN Red List. If things don’t change soon, they will likely become extinct.
Thank you so much for coming to hang out and learn with me today! Did you have fun learning more about our friend the Scalloped Hammerhead? I know I did. I LOVE getting to learn new things about my favorite animals every week. What is your favorite shark fun fact? Let me know below!
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