Cat shark

About this species

The rusty carpetshark is a carpetshark of the family Parascylliidae found off southern Australia between latitudes 31°S and 41°S near the ocean floor on the continental shelf. It inhabits rocky reefs and seagrass beds 5–150 m (16–492 ft) in depth by night, hiding in caves by day. Its length is up to 80 cm (2.6 ft) TL and it feeds on crustaceans and molluscs. Reproduction is oviparous, with pups being born at 17 cm (6.7 in) in length.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Rusty carpetshark”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 10 records
February: 16 records
March: 13 records
April: 21 records
May: 13 records
June: 5 records
July: 6 records
August: 3 records
September: 4 records
October: 2 records
November: 11 records
December: 14 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 8–72 m · Deepest record: 143 m

0–10 m: 10 records
10–20 m: 8 records
20–30 m: 4 records
30–40 m: 19 records
40–50 m: 8 records
50–60 m: 4 records
60–70 m: 3 records
70–80 m: 3 records
80–90 m: 4 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 14–19 °C

12–14 °C: 29 records
14–16 °C: 39 records
16–18 °C: 22 records
18–20 °C: 5 records

Photos

(c) Lek Khauv, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Lek Khauv · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bruce Deagle, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Bruce Deagle · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bruce Deagle, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lek Khauv, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Cat shark, Rusty carpet shark, Rusty catshark, Tasmanian carpet shark, Tasmanian spotted catshark, cat shark, rusty carpet shark, rusty carpetshark, rusty catshark, Rusty Shark, Spotted Shark, Tasmanian Spotted Shark

Names in 4 more languages

German: Rostfarbener Teppichhai
Spanish: alfombrera mohosa, alfombrera tasmánica
French: requin-carpette roux, Requin carpette roux, requin-carpette tacheté
Japanese: サビイロクラカケザメ

Other scientific names: Parascyllium multimaculatum

Similar species

Cat shark
Parascyllium variolatum
Cat shark
Parascyllium collare
Ginger Carpetshark
Parascyllium sparsimaculatum
Taiwan saddled carpet shark
Cirrhoscyllium formosanum
Saddled carpet shark
Cirrhoscyllium japonicum
Barbelthroat carpet shark
Cirrhoscyllium expolitum

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
126 open-data records from 1914 to 2024.
Species data updated November 5, 2026.