Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay
Encyclopedia
The Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay is a public aquarium
Public aquarium
A public aquarium is the aquatic counterpart of a zoo, housing living aquatic species for viewing. Most public aquariums feature tanks larger than those kept by home aquarists, as well as smaller tanks. Since the first public aquariums were built in the mid-19th century, they have become popular...

 located at and owned by the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino is a 44-story luxury hotel casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by MGM Resorts International. Five floors of the main hotel building are occupied by the five-star and AAA Five-Diamond Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas...

 in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

. Its main tank is 1300000 gallons (4,921,035.6 l), the third largest in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. The facility is 95000 sq ft (8,825.8 m²), and displays numerous different species of shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....

s, rays
Batoidea
Batoidea is a superorder of cartilaginous fish commonly known as rays and skates, containing more than 500 described species in thirteen families...

, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...

s, and marine invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...

s. It also features a shark tunnel
Shark tunnel
A shark tunnel is an underwater tunnel that passes through an aquarium typically with sharks and related aquatic life.They are usually made of thick acrylic glass....

.

The Shark Reef Aquarium is the only Nevada institution accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. While most aquariums are located close to the ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...

, the Shark Reef is exceptional in that it is located in a desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

, far from any natural water source. The reef was developed in consultation with the Vancouver Aquarium
Vancouver Aquarium
The Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre is a public aquarium located in Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In addition to being a major tourist attraction for Vancouver, the aquarium is a centre for marine research, conservation and marine animal rehabilitation.The Vancouver...

.

History

The exhibits opened in 2000. In 2007, it underwent a re-branding campaign adding "Aquarium" to the official name. Shark Reef Aquarium officials stated that the re-branding is intended to present the actual nature of the habitat, as members of the public sometimes confused Shark Reef as a name for a bar, lounge, restaurant, etc.

Great Hammerhead Shark

Shark Reef Aquarium was the first closed-system aquarium in North America to exhibit a great hammerhead
Great hammerhead
The great hammerhead is the largest species of hammerhead shark, family Sphyrnidae, attaining a maximum length of 6.1 m . It is found in tropical and warm temperate waters worldwide, inhabiting coastal areas and the continental shelf...

 shark. The female juvenile was less than four feet long when she was accidentally caught off the coast of Florida. The shark was successfully flown into Mandalay Bay in August 2001 on a record 16-hour flight in a special transportation tank designed specifically for it. It remained in a private quarantine tank for 2.5 years until the in-house aquarium husbandry team decided it had grown large enough where it would not fall prey to the other sharks in the exhibit tank. It measured six feet long when it was finally introduced among big public fanfare into the 1.3 million gallon tank on November 3, 2003 for public exhibition. After more than a year on exhibit, the specimen died suddenly and unexpectedly on December 16, 2004. A necropsy later attributed an intestinal infection as the cause of death. The specimen had grown to 6.5 ft (2 m) and weighed in at 95 lb (43.1 kg) at time of death.

Devil's Hole pupfish

In May 2005, two adult male Devil's Hole pupfish
Devil's Hole pupfish
The Devil's Hole pupfish, Cyprinodon diabolis, is a species of fish native to Devil's Hole, a geothermal , aquifer-fed pool within a limestone cavern, in the Amargosa Pupfish Station of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex east of Death Valley National Park.-Physical description:The Devil's...

 were moved from Devils Hole and two adult females were moved from a refuge at Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...

 to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay in hopes of augmenting the population.

Komodo Dragon

On June 20, 2008, Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay received a new Komodo dragon
Komodo dragon
The Komodo dragon , also known as the Komodo monitor, is a large species of lizard found in the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang and Gili Dasami. A member of the monitor lizard family , it is the largest living species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of in rare cases...

 from the Miami MetroZoo. He is currently at the Jungle Temple exhibit at the Aquarium.
One of the conditions for Shark Reef to kept the Komodo Dragon in captivity as a threathened species is being part of the Breeding Program.
[13 april 2011] This Komodo Dragon has already reached a middle age. Speaking with an employee it turns out that this Komodo Dragn is 6 years (April 2011), with a life expectation of 12.
Unfortunately there is nothing know at this moment of the breeding program and if there is any female available for him to breed with.

Shark Ray

On Shark Reef's 10th birthday, they placed a Bowmouth guitarfish
Bowmouth guitarfish
The bowmouth guitarfish, mud skate, or shark ray is a species of ray related to guitarfishes and skates, and the sole member of the family Rhinidae. It is found widely in the tropical coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific region, at depths of up to...

 on exhibit, the new resident.

Other Animals

After the 10th birthday, they added a Burmese Python
Burmese Python
The Burmese Python is the largest subspecies of the Indian Python and one of the 6 largest snakes in the world, native to a large variation of tropic and subtropic areas of Southern- and Southeast Asia. They are often found near water and are sometimes semi-aquatic, but can also be found in trees...

 and 2 Green Anoles in the Jungle Temple.

Exhibits

Jungle: Do not be fooled by a golden crocodile, watch out for the Komodo Dragon, look out for pythons and discover a predatory Amazon aquarium.

Temple: Look out for various fish, rays and an octopus, beware of the horseshoe crabs. You can touch the horseshoe crabs, with your fingers in the tide pool.

Shipwreck: Beware of the sharks, the sawfish and the barracudas, look out for the treasure chest. Exit your way through the gift shop!

External links

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