School shark
Carcharhinus sorrah (Valenciennes, 1839)
Status not recordedsharks and rays
The school shark (Carcharhinus sorrah) is a species in the family Carcharhinidae, order Carcharhiniformes.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the school shark
- Weight
- up to 14.5 kg
- Length
- up to 1.57 m
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 13.7 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- 5.1
- Age at maturity
- 2.27 years – 2.37 years
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the school shark live?
Not recorded
Is the school shark endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the school shark classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classElasmobranchii
- orderCarcharhiniformes
- familyCarcharhinidae
- genusCarcharhinus
- SpeciesCarcharhinus sorrah (Valenciennes, 1839)
Synonyms Carcharhinus bleekeri, Carcharhinus spallanzani, Carcharias bleekeri, Carcharias sorrah, Carcharias spallanzani, Carcharias taeniatus, Carcharinus sorrah, Carcharius spallanzani, Eulamia spallanzani, Galeolamna isobel, Squalus spallanzani
Other names and names in other languages (28)
- Sorrah sharkEnglish
- Spot-tail sharkEnglish
- Spot-tail whalerEnglish
- Spottail sharkEnglish
- West Australian whaler sharkEnglish
- JarjurArabic
- žralok západoaustralskýCzech
- SorrahhaiGerman
- ދޮން މިޔަރުDivehi
- Tiburón Rabo ManchadoSpanish
- pilkkapyrstöhaiFinnish
- Requin tachetéFrench
- Foltosfarkú cápaHungarian
- Squalo grigio dalla coda macchiataItalian
- ホウライザメJapanese
- 검은꼬리상어Korean
- VlekstaarthaaiDutch
- marracho-rabo-manchadoPortuguese
- Серо-бурая акулаRussian
- ปลาฉลามจุดดำThai
- Сіра акула плямохвостаUkrainian
- 沙拉真鯊Chinese
- قرش أبقع الذيلArabic
- قرش ذو الذيل المبقعArabic
- FleckzahnhaiGerman
- SchwanzfleckhaiGerman
- Requin à queue tachetéeFrench
- Пилозубая рифовая акулаRussian
Relatives of the school shark
Other species in the same genus Carcharhinus.

Bull shark
Carcharhinus leucas

Oceanic whitetip shark
Carcharhinus longimanus

Blacktip reef shark
Carcharhinus melanopterus

Grey reef shark
Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos

Blacktip shark
Carcharhinus limbatus

Silky shark
Carcharhinus falciformis
CompareSchool shark vs Bull sharkSchool shark vs Oceanic whitetip sharkSchool shark vs Blacktip reef sharkSchool shark vs Grey reef shark
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
What kind of animal is the school shark?
The school shark (Carcharhinus sorrah) belongs to the family Carcharhinidae in the order Carcharhiniformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
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Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
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Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). School shark (Carcharhinus sorrah). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/carcharhinus-sorrah
“School shark (Carcharhinus sorrah).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/carcharhinus-sorrah.
@misc{carcharhinus_sorrah_2026,
title = {School shark (Carcharhinus sorrah)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/carcharhinus-sorrah},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}