Leopard Shark - Tidal Cycles
Keywords:
Finding your way through the dark, learning to respect and embrace tidal cycles, a time and place for everything, knowing when to go forward, and when to retreat, you cannot see clearly, rely on your other senses, using socialisation as protection, healing and nourishment, it's okay to take your time, be wary and cautious, ocean wisdom, coastal wisdom, tidal wisdom.
General Description:
The leopard shark is a marine species of hound shark found along the Pacific coast of North America. It has striking leopard-like markings of black-to-grey along it's body, and juveniles have spottier markings. They are long, slender sharks, averaging 1.2 to 1.5 metres long. They are coastal predators generally found in the intertidal zone, in sometimes brackish or murky waters, and frequent bays, estuaries, sandflats, mudflats and rock-strewn areas; often in large schools with other species like smoothhounds and dogfish. Their hunting and activity is very powerfully influenced by the tides, they are opportunistic benthic feeders, eating sea worms, as well as clams, crabs, shrimp, bony fish and fish eggs. They cannot see very well, due to the murkiness associated in regions where they hunt.
They generally like to stay in a particular area, though some will travel, and will socialise with other leopard sharks of similar size and sex. Leopard sharks are very slow growing, and take many years to sexually mature. They are often caught for food and aquariums, as they pose no danger to humans and are wary by nature, and quick to flee.
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