Fish
Elephant Fish
Callorhinchus milii · also called elephant shark
Sweeping a long, flexible, trunk-like snout across the seafloor, an elephant fish hunts by feeling for the faint electrical signals given off by prey hidden beneath the sand, a smooth-skinned relative of sharks that lays distinctive spiral egg cases rather than giving birth to live young.
Overview
The elephant fish, Callorhinchus milii, is a cartilaginous chimaera native to coastal and ocean habitat across parts of the Southern Hemisphere, including waters around Australia and New Zealand. Its extraordinary trunk-like electroreceptive snout, distinctive spiral egg cases, and status as a genuine relative of sharks despite looking so different make it one of the more unusual cartilaginous fish found anywhere in coastal waters.
Hunting by electricity, not by sight
Rather than relying primarily on eyesight to find buried prey, the elephant fish sweeps its uniquely shaped, sensor-packed snout across the seafloor, detecting the faint electrical signals that shellfish and other small invertebrates give off even while hidden beneath the sand.
Status
Least Concern, remaining widespread and managed under commercial fishing quotas in parts of its Southern Hemisphere range.
Elephant Fish: common questions
Why is it called the elephant fish?
This species has a long, flexible snout resembling an elephant's trunk, densely packed with electroreceptors used to detect the faint electrical signals given off by prey buried in sand or mud, a feature that gave the species its common name.
Is the elephant fish a true shark?
No, this species is a chimaera, a group of cartilaginous fish that split from the shark lineage hundreds of millions of years ago, giving it a smooth, scaleless body quite different from a typical shark despite the shared cartilaginous skeleton.
How does the elephant fish reproduce?
This species lays tough, spiral-ridged egg cases onto the seafloor, each containing a single developing embryo, rather than giving birth to live young.
Does the elephant fish have any form of defence?
Yes, this species carries a venomous spine in front of its dorsal fin, used purely for defence against predators rather than for hunting or capturing prey.