What Animal Lives Where

Where has the Whitetip Shark been recorded?

Triaenodon obesus occurrence evidence comes from 1,530 records in 30 countries and territories, from 1923 to 2026. Most records come from United States.

Whitetip Shark
Whitetip Shark — Photo (display-sized rendition): Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
ElasmobranchiiCarcharhiniformesCarcharhinidaeTriaenodon

Observation evidence passport

Evidence found

1,530 records across 30 countries and territories, 1923–2026.

Triaenodon obesus · GBIF taxon key 2418054

Source coverage

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

Refreshed 2026-08-23. Inspect the taxon on GBIF.

What this means

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

10 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: April. 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

19232026

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

Where Whitetip Shark has been recorded

The countries below show where occurrence evidence exists for Whitetip Shark. 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 324
United States Minor Outlying Islands 234
Mexico 184
Colombia 172
Northern Mariana Islands 135
Panama 111
Costa Rica 70
American Samoa 66
Australia 43
Ecuador 38
Micronesia 24
Indonesia 19
New Caledonia 19
Palau 18
Philippines 16
Marshall Islands 15
Guam 10
Maldives 9
Seychelles 5
Egypt 3
Japan 3
Fiji 2
Kiribati 2
Vanuatu 2
Sri Lanka 1
Myanmar 1
Mauritius 1
French Polynesia 1
Singapore 1
Yemen 1

Related animals

Others in the family Carcharhinidae.

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Grey Shark
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Blacktip Reef Shark
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Spot-tail shark
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Silvertip Shark
Silvertip Shark
108 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.