The docile Leopard Shark is the most frequently sighted shark in Thai Waters, and is completely harmless to people. In some area’s of the world people refer to Leopard Shark, as a Zebra Shark, but this shark, the closest relative to the Whale Shark has always been referred to as a Leopard Shark in Thailand.

During the day this unmistakable sharks can be found resting peacefully on the sandy bottom’s around coral reefs, from depths of 5-50 meters. The Leopard Shark, or Stegostoma fasciatum in Latin can grow up to 3.50 meters, and it is unusual to see sharks smaller than 1.50 meters close to the reef. Around the Phi Phi Island Leopard Shark can be found on most dive sites, and it is not uncommon to see 3-4 individual in one dive. During mating season groups of males will travel around in packs searching for sexually mature females. When a female is found, a very aggressive mating ritual takes place where the male shark will bite the female on the pectoral fins and tail until she submits, once this occurs the male shark will use his claspers to latch onto the female for the mating process. Leopard Sharks use oviparity reproduction, which means they will by a fertilized egg capsule, usually in deep water away from the reef, and leave it to hatch, and then fend for itself. Juveniles leopard sharks are very rare, they have a dark and light vertical bar markings, hence the name Zebra Shark. The Juveniles spend the first few years of their lives in deeper water, far away from the reef.

A Leopard Sharks diet mainly consists of crustaceans, other shelled invertebrates, some fish and even sea snakes. When hunting at night the Leopard Shark will push it’s body off the ground by using it’s pectoral fins, making a cave like opening at the front of it’s body. Once in position the shark will then wait for a crab or lobster to come on in before crushing its body down onto its victim, before using its powerful crushing plates in its mouth to eat its prey. So in actual fact Leopard Sharks don’t even have any teeth, instead they have two plates which are used to crush their prey. As far as predators go, Leopard Sharks main predator is man. Due to their docile behavior, and beautiful markings, Leopard Sharks have become a firm favorite in aquariums all over the world, and for those less fortunate animals, like all sharks their fins are highly sort after to please the Asian Shark fin soup demand.

The Leopard Shark has also become a favorite of divers the world over, due to the ease to interact and photograph them. Divers who approve resting Leopard Sharks with care can easily get within a couple of meters, without disturbing them. But be warned, this takes time to perfect, and inexperienced divers should not try this.

During my eight years living and working in Thailand I have seen hundreds, if not thousands of this amazing creature. I have been lucky enough to witness group of mating Leopard Sharks on Phi Phi Island, and even a male and female in their mating ritual on the top deck of the King Cruiser Wreck. I still love every encounter, and offer the following advice to divers regarding these animals.

Please follow these guidelines when encountering a Leopard Shark.

• When approaching a Leopard Shark, be as close to the bottom as possible.
• Slow your breathing, so not to scare the animal.
• Never approach from directly behind the shark, always let them see you.
• Do not touch the shark, No matter how temping.
• Do not chase the shark.
• Never buy shark fin soup or shark teeth souvenir.

The Leopard Shark is one of my favorite animals that I see when I’m diving, they are great to photograph, and they are also a great, first time shark for my students to encounter, especially as they don’t even have teeth.

Where Can I see them?

• Phi Phi Island
• Shark Point
• Racha Yai
• Racha Noi
• Similan Islands
• Sipadan, Malaysia