What Animal Lives Where

Where has the Brown Unicornfish been recorded?

Naso unicornis occurrence evidence comes from 4,468 records in 39 countries and territories, from 1882 to 2026. Most records come from United States.

Brown Unicornfish
Brown Unicornfish — Photo (display-sized rendition): (c) Susan Prior, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
PerciformesAcanthuridaeNaso

Observation evidence passport

Evidence found

4,468 records across 39 countries and territories, 1882–2026.

Naso unicornis · GBIF taxon key 5209124

Source coverage

CC0 GBIF Animalia occurrence facets, including country, month and year summaries.

Refreshed 2026-09-22. Inspect the taxon on GBIF.

What this means

The species has been recorded in the listed places in the stated source universe. Peak month: March.

7 months reach at least 10% of the peak facet count.

What this does not mean

repeated describes the record pattern, not a formal range, residency, abundance or conservation assessment.

A single record remains evidence of a recording, not proof that a population lives there.

Compare this animal’s observation pattern

When it is recorded

JFMAMJJASOND

Peak month: March. Records cluster in the months an animal is present and being looked for, so a summer peak can reflect observer effort as much as the animal.

Records over time

18822026

Recording effort has risen steeply almost everywhere since the 1990s, so a rising line usually shows more observers rather than more animals.

Where Brown Unicornfish has been recorded

The countries below show where occurrence evidence exists for Brown Unicornfish. They do not define a complete habitat range: survey effort differs by place, and historical or one-off records can appear alongside repeated presence.

PlaceRecordsShare
United States 2,675
New Caledonia 373
United States Minor Outlying Islands 296
Micronesia 218
Seychelles 163
Northern Mariana Islands 113
Australia 108
Guam 107
American Samoa 92
Mayotte 71
Philippines 55
Marshall Islands 36
French Polynesia 35
Tonga 28
Egypt 19
Yemen 17
Cocos Islands 14
Mauritius 10
Fiji 5
Réunion 5
Papua New Guinea 4
Japan 3
ZZ 3
Christmas Island 2
Palau 2
China 1
Indonesia 1
British Indian Ocean Territory 1
Jordan 1
Sri Lanka 1
Maldives 1
Mozambique 1
Norfolk Island 1
Oman 1
Solomon Islands 1
Thailand 1
Taiwan 1
Vanuatu 1
Samoa 1

Related animals

Others in the family Acanthuridae.

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Whitecheek surgeonfish
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Orangespine unicornfish
Orangespine unicornfish
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Convict surgeonfish
Convict surgeonfish
8,606 records
Orangeband Surgeonfish
Orangeband Surgeonfish
7,615 records
Record pattern: repeated
Repeated records across many years and months. This is inferred from how many years and months the animal appears in, not from a range map — treat it as evidence, not a formal assessment.