There are three known species of thresher sharks; the common thresher (Alopias vulpinus), bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus) and pelagic thresher (Alopias pelagicus). Their extremely long tail is used to stun or kill their prey.

Thresher sharks live in temperate, tropical oceans around the world and feed on cuttlefish, squid and large schools of fish. They are mainly solitary, can be brown, blue or purple in color and have short heads with noses that look like cones. They prefer the open ocean habitat and may swim as deep as 1600 feet.

The thresher shark has no particular season in which it breeds, and their litters of pups can number between two and four. Thresher sharks are known to live for about 20 years.

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