---
title: Tiger Shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)
scientific_name: Galeocerdo cuvier
common_name: Tiger Shark
taxon: Requiem shark
conservation_status: DD - Data Deficient
published: 2024-01-04T11:09:16.455Z
updated: 2026-08-11T20:08:55.334Z
tags: Tiger Shark, Galeocerdo cuvier, Requiem shark, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/requiem-shark/tiger-shark
---

# Tiger Shark (*Galeocerdo cuvier*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Requiem shark (*Carcharhinidae*)
- **Size:** up to 7.5 m
- **Weight:** 300 - 900 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-900 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Open water, drop-offs and shallow lagoons, from the surface to deep water
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **Conservation status:** DD - Data Deficient

## How to recognise it

- blunt squared-off head, wider than any other large shark here
- vertical bars down the flank, strong in young fish and faded in adults
- long upper lobe on the tail
- unhurried rolling swimming style

A blunt-headed shark, commonly 3.5 to 5 m (11 to 16 ft) and recorded to 7.5 m (25 ft), gray-green above with vertical bars down the flank that are strong in juveniles and fade to almost nothing in old adults. The head is wide and squared off, the upper lobe of the tail long, and the whole animal moves at a slow, unhurried roll until it does not.

The teeth are the reason it eats what it eats. Every other large shark has teeth for holding or slicing; this one has a deeply notched, coarsely serrated tooth in both jaws that works like a can opener, and by shaking its head it saws rather than bites. That is what lets it cut through the shell of a sea turtle, which almost nothing else in the ocean can do.

The consequence is the broadest diet of any shark: turtles, sea snakes, rays, dolphins, birds, other sharks, carrion and, notoriously, inedible objects that stay in the stomach for months. Populations near seabird colonies specialize in fledglings that fall into the water on their first flight, and time their arrival to that week of the year.

It has one of the worst records of any species for attacks on people, second only to the white shark. It also has a reputation among divers for indifference, and both are true: this is an unhurried, curious, entirely unpredictable animal that investigates by mouth. Encounters here are rare and mostly offshore.

## Also known as

- **English:** tiger shark, Leopard shark, Spotted shark
- **Arabic:** قرش النمر
- **Hebrew:** כריש טיגרי
- **French:** Requin tigre commun, Mangeur d'hommes, Requin tigre
- **Italian:** Squalo tigre
- **German:** Tigerhai
- **Spanish:** tiburón tigre, Alecrín, tintorera
- **Turkish:** kaplan kopekbaligi, kaplan köpekbalığı
- **Portuguese:** Tubarao-tigre, Tubarão-tigre
- **Dutch:** Tijgerhaai
- **Swedish:** Tigerhaj
- **Polish:** Zarlacz tygrysi, rekin tygrysi, żarłacz tygrysi
- **Japanese:** イタチザメ, Itachizame
- **Chinese:** 爛沙, 虎沙, 鳥鯊
- **Ukrainian:** Акула тигрова, Тигрова акула
- **Russian:** Тигровая акула
- **DA:** Tigerhaj
- **FI:** Tiikerihai
- **IS:** Tígrisháfur
- **LT:** tigrinis ryklys
- **NO:** Tigerhai
- **SL:** morski tiger
- **TAH:** ma'o toretore

## Scientific synonyms

- *Carcharias fasciatus* Bleeker, 1852
- *Carcharias hemprichii* Klunzinger, 1871
- *Galeocerda cuvier* (Péron & Lesueur, 1822)
- *Galeocerdo arcticus* (Faber, 1829)
- *Galeocerdo cuvieri* (Péron & Lesueur, 1822)
- *Galeocerdo fasciatus* van Kampen, 1907
- *Galeocerdo obtusus* Klunzinger, 1871
- *Galeocerdo rayneri* Macdonald & Barron, 1868
- *Galeocerdo tigrinis* Müller & Henle, 1839
- *Galeocerdo tigrinus* Müller & Henle, 1839
- *Galeus cepedianus* Agassiz, 1838
- *Galeus maculatus* Ranzani, 1839
- *Squalus arcticus* Faber, 1829
- *Squalus cuvier* Péron & Lesueur, 1822

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Western Indian Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/requiem-shark/tiger-shark)*
*Updated: August 11, 2026*