A horn shark (Heterodontus francisci), which is a rare and endangered shark species, was born at Sosto Zoo. The European zoos are initiating breeding program in order to preserve this species, thus it is good news that we have already had offspring.
Horn sharks live in the coastal waters of North America, in the Gulf of California. The adult individuals can be 1 m in length. One of their features is a strong dorsal spine used for protection. The adult individuals live in 2-10 m deep, rocky areas, while the juveniles can migrate deeper, to 40-150 m in sandy areas.
The horn shark’s diet consists of molluscs, sea urchins and crabs.
There are viviparous and oviviparous sharks but the horn shark is oviparous..
The special feature of this species is to be one of the shark species with the characteristic of parental care. After laying, the female picks up the egg cases and wedges them into crevices to protect them from predators.
The eggs hatch in 6–10 months; the juveniles measure 15–17 cm.
In our zoo, the hatching occurred under artificial conditions, thus our zookeepers breed the offspring.
