Nurse shark: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the nurse shark lives – recorded in 19 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Ginglymostoma cirratum
Group	Sharks
Status	Vulnerable (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	19 countries
Continents	Africa, North America, South America
Class	Cartilaginous fish
Order	Orectolobiformes
Family	Ginglymostomatidae

Where does the nurse shark live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the nurse shark in 19 countries and territories across Africa, North America and South America. Wikidata gives its range as: Brazil.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the nurse shark endangered?

The nurse shark’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Vulnerable” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the nurse shark?

The nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) is a cartilaginous fish in the order Orectolobiformes and the family Ginglymostomatidae, genus Ginglymostoma. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the nurse shark

The nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) is an elasmobranch fish in the family Ginglymostomatidae. The conservation status of the nurse shark is globally assessed as vulnerable in the IUCN List of Threatened Species. They are considered to be a species of least concern in the United States and in The Bahamas, but considered to be near threatened in the western Atlantic Ocean because of their vulnerable status in South America and reported threats throughout many areas of Central America and the Caribbean. They are directly targeted in some fisheries and considered by-catch in others.

Nurse sharks are an important species for shark research. They are robust and able to tolerate capture, handling, and tagging extremely well.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Nurse shark (revision 1353931925), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q756859 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).