Adopt a Leopard Shark

Why adopt a leopard shark?

Adopt a leopard shark and you back research on a harmless, spotted reef shark that is in trouble across much of its Indo-Pacific range. Leopard sharks live close to the coast and often rest on the bottom, habits that make them an easy target for fishing.

In 2016 the leopard shark was reclassified as globally Endangered on the IUCN Red List because of heavy fishing throughout much of its range. In 2024 the regional population stretching from the Western Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia, which includes Mozambique, was assessed as Critically Endangered. The species is now rare or absent from several reefs it once occupied in parts of Southeast Asia and Indonesia.

Heavy fishing combined with low reproductive rates has driven steep declines. Leopard sharks also gather in specific areas, so when fisheries target those sites, local extinctions can follow quickly. MMF's research identifies the sites these sharks depend on and builds the case for protecting them in advance.

About leopard sharks

The leopard shark (Stegostoma tigrinum) lives throughout the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. In North America it is sometimes known as the zebra shark, partly to avoid confusion with an unrelated Californian shark that is also called a leopard shark.

Both names fit. Leopard sharks are born with vivid dark and light stripes, and Dr. Christine Dudgeon determined that the striped young mimic sea snakes. Within a year or two the stripes break into spots, and the adult pattern then stays stable for many years, so researchers can recognize each shark from a photo of its left side, behind the gills.

Elsewhere, leopard sharks are usually seen alone or in small groups, resting on the bottom during the day. At Julian Rocks off Byron Bay, they swim actively all day, and males follow females, behavior MMF's partners think is a precursor to mating.

• Size: the leopard sharks identified in southern Mozambique, mostly adults or subadults, averaged 1.64 m (5.4 ft) long.
• Diet: octopus, fish, crabs, and lobster, held and crushed by teeth made for grasping. They are mainly nocturnal predators and will dig into the reef to reach prey.
• Lifespan: long thought to be about 25 years, but a male tagged as an adult in 2005 was photographed at Byron Bay 16 years later.
• Young: juveniles are rarely seen in the wild, and where the females that visit Julian Rocks lay their eggs remains unknown.

How your leopard shark adoption helps

Your leopard shark adoption supports MMF's work as a whole, including research in two places where these sharks gather in numbers. Off Byron Bay, MMF Research Associate Dr. David Robinson founded the Australia Leopard Shark Project in 2019. He runs it through Sundive Research, in partnership with the Cape Byron Marine Park, the University of the Sunshine Coast, and MMF.

Each summer, hundreds of leopard sharks aggregate at Julian Rocks, from around December to May. Divers and snorkelers photograph them, and the project had identified 489 individual sharks by January 2025. The next step is finding out where the sharks go when they leave at the end of each summer.

In southern Mozambique, the Mozambique Leopard Shark Research Project compiled the first photo-identification catalog for leopard sharks in southern Africa. A 2026 study led by Jule Buschmann of the All Out Africa Marine Research Centre and co-authored by MMF's Nilza de Catarina and Anna Flam drew on 9,219 dive surveys along the Inhambane coast, identified 164 sharks, and recorded the first leopard shark courtship in the Western Indian Ocean.

The findings identify priorities for protection. Mozambique's national fisheries regulations protect only leopard sharks under 1.5 m (4.9 ft) long, and the authors recommend extending protection to sharks of all sizes, protecting the reefs north of Tofo, and setting minimum approach distances for divers. MMF scientists were also among the assessors for the 2024 IUCN Red List reassessment, and the team now tracks tagged leopard sharks on an acoustic receiver network across the Bazaruto Seascape.