---
title: Whitetip Reef Shark (Triaenodon obesus)
scientific_name: Triaenodon obesus
common_name: Whitetip Reef Shark
taxon: Requiem shark
conservation_status: VU - Vulnerable
published: 2024-11-03T22:54:07.535Z
updated: 2026-08-14T11:57:51.052Z
tags: Whitetip Reef Shark, Triaenodon obesus, Requiem shark, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/requiem-shark/whitetip-reef-shark
---

# Whitetip Reef Shark (*Triaenodon obesus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Requiem shark (*Carcharhinidae*)
- **Size:** 1.6 - 2.1 m
- **Weight:** 18.3 Kg
- **Depth:** 8-40 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Caves and ledges on coral reef, in clear water
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** VU - Vulnerable

## How to recognise it

- white tips on the first dorsal and upper tail fins
- tube-shaped flaps of skin beside the nostrils
- oval eyes with vertical pupils
- lies motionless in caves by day, often several together

A slim, small-headed shark of 1.6 m (5 ft) with white tips on the first dorsal and upper tail fins, tube-shaped flaps beside the nostrils, and oval eyes with vertical pupils. By day it lies still under a ledge or inside a cave, often several animals stacked together, which is where nearly every diver here has seen one.

Lying still is the trick. Most requiem sharks have to swim to breathe, forcing water over the gills by moving; this one can pump water through its mouth while stationary, so it can spend the entire day motionless on the bottom without suffocating. That single physiological difference is what makes it the shark you can watch at rest rather than in passing.

At night the same reef becomes a coordinated hunt. Whitetips work a coral head as a group, pushing thin bodies into holes and flushing sleeping fish toward the others - not cooperation with shared spoils, but a crowd whose combined pressure leaves the prey nowhere to go. A hunting group can dismantle a bommie over an hour, and the noise is audible from a distance.

They are strongly site-faithful, returning to the same cave for years, and they are unbothered by divers who leave them alone. Bites are rare and follow speared fish. The species is Vulnerable.

## Also known as

- **English:** whitetip reef shark, White-tip reef shark, White-tipped Reef Shark
- **Hebrew:** כרישון לבן-קצוות
- **French:** Requin à ailerons blancs de récif, Requin à pointes blanches du lagon, Requin corail
- **Italian:** Squalo a pina bianca di scogliera, Squalo pinna bianca del reef
- **German:** Weißspitzen-Riffhai
- **Spanish:** cazón coralero trompacorta, Tiburón de puntas blancas de arrecife, Tiburón Puntas Blancas de Arrecife
- **Portuguese:** Galha-branca-dos-recifes
- **Dutch:** Witpuntrifhaai
- **Polish:** Żarłacz gruby
- **Czech:** žralok lagunový
- **Japanese:** ネムリブカ, Nemuribuka
- **Chinese:** 沙魚, 灰三齒鯊, 白鰭鯊
- **Russian:** Рифовая акула
- **DA:** Hvidtippet revhaj
- **FI:** valkoevähai
- **HU:** fehéruszonyú szirtcápa
- **MSA:** Ikan yu
- **TAH:** mamaru
- **TH:** ปลาฉลามครีบขาว

## Scientific synonyms

- *Carcharias obesus* Rüppell, 1837
- *Traenodon obesus* (Rüppell, 1837)
- *Triaenodon apicalis* Whitley, 1939
- *Trianodon obesus* (Rüppell, 1837)

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/sharks/requiem-shark/whitetip-reef-shark)*
*Updated: August 14, 2026*