Loro Parque of Tenerife donated zebra sharks (Stegostoma fasciatum) to the House of the Oceans in Vienna and to the Nyíregyháza Zoo for breeding.
The Nyíregyháza Zoo, the first of the rural zoos to showcase marine life since 2000, began keeping the rare shark species with the undisguised intention of later arriving at the newly arrived male and female sharks and establishing a breeding colony.
The 15 month old female Nazare and 14 month old male Maui are currently 110 cm tall, but can reach up to 2.5 meters when they reach sexually mature age
Their skin was striped when hatched (as the species name suggests), but the stripes will disappear within a year and dots will appear on the animals.
The new inhabitants of the India House arrived in a very adventures way – by airplane , and then with special air-conditioned truck to the county seat of Szabolcs, where they are in a familiarisation cage in their new 150 m3 habitat with the blacktip reef sharks.
The cartilaginous fish are fed once per day, when they are fed on herring, mackerel, squid and hake.
The zebra sharks are native to the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. They Usually prefer the shallow waters of the ocean, between corall reefs but rarerly they venture into the high seas.
They often resting relying on their pectoral fins in the bottom of the ocean.
With the arrival of the animals, now Our guests can already meet 7 shark species in the Nyiregyháza Zoo.
picture: MTI / Attila Balazs
