What Shark Biology Topics Can I Learn About on shark.swiss?

Updated

shark.swiss covers shark biology through four main areas: habitats and evolution, anatomy and seven senses, reproduction, and the shark's dual role as hunter and hunted. The site is run by the Shark Foundation, which describes its mission as international shark protection, so the biology material sits alongside conservation content rather than standing alone as a textbook. If you want a structured overview of how sharks live, sense, reproduce, and fit into food webs, these sections give you a starting point; if you need species-level identification or distribution data, the site's separate database and Red List sections are the better place to look.

Habitats and evolution

The biology section includes pages on habitats and on evolution, alongside features and anatomy. This means you can read about where sharks live and how the group has changed over time before moving into the details of body structure. The habitat material is grouped with broader threats such as fisheries, finning, bycatch, mangroves, global warming, and plastics, so habitat loss and degradation are presented as part of the same picture as direct fishing pressure.

Anatomy and the seven senses

The site frames shark anatomy around "7 Senses," which is the most distinctive part of its biology offering. Rather than a generic anatomy page, it treats the sensory system as a topic in its own right. This is useful if your question is how sharks detect prey or navigate — the senses section is where that is explained. The anatomy material is listed separately, so you can read body structure first and then the senses, or go straight to the senses if that is your interest.

Reproduction

Reproduction has its own page in the biology section. Shark reproduction is unusually varied compared with most fish, and the site treats it as a standalone topic rather than a subsection of anatomy. Read this alongside the evolution and anatomy pages if you want to understand why reproductive strategies differ across shark groups.

Sharks as hunters and as prey

The site organizes the "hunted hunters" theme explicitly: there are pages for "Hunted" and for "Hunters." The Hunters material covers sharks as predators; the Hunted material covers fisheries, finning, and bycatch. This pairing is the clearest expression of the site's framing — sharks are not threatening us, we are threatening sharks — and it lets you read predation and human impact as two halves of the same subject.

What else is on the site

Beyond the biology pages, shark.swiss offers:

  • Accidents: facts, dangerous species, prevention, and water activities.
  • Protection: the foundation's projects, grants, and publications.
  • Database: search, distribution, identification, and Red List categories with taxonomy.
  • Projects: current and completed work, including population genomics, shark fisheries in Angola and Ghana, nurseries, whale sharks, and regional projects such as Fiji, Cape Verde, Seychelles, and the Mediterranean.
  • Exhibit: information on the "Sharks – the hunted hunters" exhibit, with tour information and impressions.
  • Shop: merchandise, for example petrified shark teeth listed at a price of 15.0.

How to use the biology section

Start with the biology menu and work through habitats, evolution, features, anatomy, senses, and reproduction in that order if you want a full pass. If you have a specific question, jump directly: senses for detection and navigation, reproduction for reproductive strategies, hunters and hunted for predator-prey and human impact. Use the database and Red List sections when you need species names, distribution, or conservation status rather than general biology.

One practical note: the site is in English, and the navigation is dense — the same labels repeat across menus, so use the search function if a topic is hard to locate. The biology content is explanatory rather than a formal course, so treat it as an orientation to each topic and follow the foundation's publications and project pages for deeper material.