{"id":7666,"date":"2026-07-01T12:04:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/?p=7666"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:04:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T11:04:48","slug":"lost-bamboo-shark-rediscovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/lost-bamboo-shark-rediscovered\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Lost’ bamboo shark rediscovered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a copy of an article in Mongabay<\/a>, published on 4th June 2026 by Shreya Dasgupta<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For nearly 20 years, the blue-spotted bamboo shark, found only in Madagascar, went scientifically undetected and unrecorded. But researchers have now found four new records of the \u201clost\u201d shark while surveying fishing villages and a Malagasy university\u2019s fish collection. These recent records, and interviews with fishers, suggest the species may be more common than previously thought, according to a new report in Oryx<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blue-spotted bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium caeruleopunctatum<\/em>), so named for the blue-white spots on its brown body, was first described based on a specimen caught off Madagascar in 1914. A second record of the species came 92 years later \u2014 a photograph of a shark caught in 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, the species largely went unconfirmed, until researchers began surveying fish markets and landing sites in Madagascar in September 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Report\u2019s lead author Tsarahasina Fanomenzana, a young Malagasy intern from the NGO Madagascar Whale Shark Project<\/a>, was showing photos of sharks and rays he\u2019d seen at a fishing village on the east coast to shark expert and co-author David Ebert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the photos was of the blue-spotted bamboo shark,\u201d Ebert told Mongabay by email. \u201cHe didn\u2019t think too much of it as there were some other images of shark and ray species he thought were more interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Ebert said he was \u201cmore than excited,\u201d because the pictures confirmed the blue-spotted shark was still around. He was in Madagascar for the Lost Sharks project, supported by the Save Our Seas Foundation<\/a>, which aims to find and raise awareness about little-known shark and ray species that could be disappearing unnoticed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ebert and his colleagues eventually confirmed two more individuals of the shark from the fishing village, and a fourth specimen housed in the University of Tulear\u2019s fish collection, on the west coast. \u201cSince these new records were published I have had some more evidence in the forms of photos come out further confirming this species,\u201d Ebert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blue-spotted bamboo shark<\/a> is currently listed as data deficient on the IUCN Red List, meaning not enough is known about the species to determine its conservation status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of information could partly be because the species is sometimes misidentified as the white-spotted bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium plagiosum<\/em>), \u201cso most Malagasy\u2019s do not realize that it is endemic to Madagascar,\u201d Ebert said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that interviews with fishers revealed they also mistake it for young leopard sharks, also called zebra sharks (Stegostoma tigrinum<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, I believe now that [the blue-spotted bamboo shark] is more common than previously thought, but due to its being misidentified it has been underreported,\u201d Ebert said. \u201cHopefully, now that people in Madagascar are more aware of it, they will start to note its occurrence going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ebert added that whether these additional new records will prompt the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, to revisit the shark\u2019s conservation status is unclear, \u201cbut hopefully we can build more information for the future such that when the time does come to review it, we might be able to elevate the assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a copy of an article in Mongabay, published on 4th June 2026 by Shreya Dasgupta For nearly 20 years, the blue-spotted bamboo shark, found only in Madagascar, went scientifically undetected and unrecorded. But researchers have now found four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7668,"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions\/7668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madawhalesharks.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}