Pyjama shark (Poroderma africanum) in the African Penguin habitat

Very nice! I thought they were gone given how long it was since I saw a report of them.

@CMP so far as I know they’re both hanging in there! I saw two of em during the feed. I hope maybe San Diego Zoo gets some or a similar South African species to go with their enormous penguin exhibit. It’s so much bigger than CAoS’s and needs more animals.

@Local_Shark San Diego already tried keeping sharks and other fish with the penguins. They were all removed a couple years ago.

Oh wow, I didn't see them when I went!

@Coelacanth18 yeah, I know - leopard sharks are a very bad species for that sort of thing. They’re highly timid, and also active swimmers that would naturally make contact with the birds (and thus have negative interactions). They are somewhat famously not area appropriate as they live in SoCal rather than Africa - the zoo even added a sign about that lol. The initial plan was to put in a more demersal species like Steinhart did, specifically I believe leopard catsharks (Poroderma pantherinum), the sister species of these pyjamas. Those appeared on the map in Africa Rocks’ initial opening months, and I was told they were replaced with the Triakis variety of “leopard sharks” because the collections team was unable to source the catsharks. I personally hope they try again someday.

Awesome! In all my years of going to the Academy I have never seen them. In regards to San Diego maybe they could try gully sharks since Sea World was able to obtain them? Though I am not sure how well they would go with the penguins.

@splendens Gully sharks are fairly similar to leopard sharks, in fact they’re even in the same genus (Triakis semifasciata vs Triakis megalopterus). If I had to guess they’re probably fairly shy and mild mannered in much the same fashion, and I do know they’re active swimmers. Much as I’d love to see a Californian facility acquire them, I wager that they’d ultimately end up with much the same result, unfortunately. So far as I know it’s only Orlando that has them as yet, at the Discovery Cove facility - I’d like to get down there and check that place out if I can somehow acquire the funds haha.