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Daily Bucket: Bonnethead Shark [1]
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Date: 2025-07-15
The Daily Bucket is a regular series from the Backyard Science group. Here we talk about Mother Nature in all her glory, especially the parts that live nearby. So let us know (as close as you are comfortable) where you are and what's going on around you. What's the weather like? Seen any interesting plants, bugs or critters? Are there birds at your feeders? Deer, foxes or snakies in your yard? Seen any cool rocks or geological features? Post your observations and notes here. And photos. We like photos. :)
The Bonnethead Shark (Sphyrna tiburo) looks like a miniature version of the Hammerhead, averaging just 3-4 feet. They are a common shark in the warm shallow waters of both the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, and can be found along most of North and South America. In Florida they are most often seen in summer, and tend to move further south in the winter.
Unlike most sharks, which have razor-sharp triangular teeth and eat mostly fish, Bonnetheads have large flat teeth for crushing the shells of crustaceans and mollusks. They can detect prey that is buried in the sand with electro-sensory organs in their snout.
No one is quite sure why the Hammerheads and Bonnetheads have their peculiar elongated heads. It has been hypothesized that having the eyes far apart helps with depth perception in vision, or that the odd shape provides room for more electro-sensory organs, or that it acts like a hydroplane to help with swimming. Proportionately, the Bonnetheads have the smallest “hammerheads” in the group.
Sharks do not lay eggs, but give birth to live young—the eggs are retained inside the body where they hatch, and the embryos are nourished by the female through an attachment between the embryo’s yolk sac and the lining of the female’s uterus. After a relatively short gestation period of five months, the mother gives birth, usually 4-10 pups, in late summer. The newborn Bonnetheads are about a foot long. They find food and protection among mangrove roots until they are big enough to move into more open water. In the wild, the primary predator on adult Bonnetheads seems to be larger species of shark and other large predatory fish.
Although closely related to the much-feared Hammerhead, the Bonnethead is shy and inoffensive towards humans. It is so docile that Bonnetheads are often found in “touch tanks” at public aquariums. Because of their high rate of reproduction, Bonnetheads are one of the few shark species that are not listed as threatened or endangered.
Some photos. The first is a wild shark, the next few (and the title shot) are aquarium sharks. Though I see them fairly often around the Pier in St Pete, sharks are very difficult to photograph in the wild.
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