The lemon shark is a large shark that can be easily distinguished by its yellow coloring allowing it to blend into the sandy floor.

Lemon sharks usually reach a length a little over 10 feet long and weigh up to 200 pounds. However, the largest lemon shark recorded was over 11 feet long and weighed over 400 pounds!

They are found in many locations from New Jersey to Africa, inhabiting places in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Their preferred habitat is in warm, shallow waters like near coral reefs, mangroves, bays, and river mouths. There have been occasional sightings of lemon sharks in the open ocean, but they don’t swim far into freshwater.

Lemon sharks use electroreceptors located on their head to detect other marine creatures, as well as the horizontal bend of their retina to help visualize prey. They are known as piscivorous, which means lemon sharks primarily eat fish. They prefer abundant fish that are known for camouflaging themselves rather than using a quick escape to avoid predators.

Lemon sharks will normally gather together during the spring to mate. Female lemon sharks are polyandrous meaning they have multiple males they mate with. Scientists believe that this is more for convenience than genetic benefits for their offspring. Pregnancy lasts for about a year and then the females will give birth to 4-15 live pups.

Even though these sharks can grow pretty big, they pose little threat to humans. In fact, there have only been 10 documented cases of a lemon shark attacking a human, with all cases involving the sharks being provoked.

Lemon sharks are usually solitary critters that motionlessly lay on the sandy floor waiting for prey. During this time, you will often see small fish clung to the sides of lemon sharks cleaning the parasites off their skin. However, they have been seen in groups of up to 20 sharks mainly to keep safe from predators. The main predator of lemon sharks are larger sharks that target lemon shark pups.