A whale shark drawn in clean, simple lines — the aquarium favourite, with its wide flat head, checkerboard of spots and long sweeping tail. The shape is bold and open, so young children can fill it with almost any colors they like, and the rows of dots give older ones something to be patient with. Free to download and print as a PDF; no registration.
🗣 Conversation Starters — for care activities and family time
How did you feel the first time you saw a shark at an aquarium?
Do you remember the shark films that frightened everyone in the 1970s? Did they put you off swimming?
Did you know that the whale shark, the biggest of them all, is a harmless plankton eater?
What do you make of the fact that a shark replaces its teeth over and over, all its life?
Is it true that sharks have no bones?
Near enough. Sharks are cartilaginous fish: the skeleton is built from cartilage rather than the hard bone of ordinary bony fish. The teeth are the exception — those are hard, and they are shed and replaced again and again, so one shark can get through many thousands in a lifetime.
What does a whale shark eat?
Plankton and small fish. It is the largest fish in the sea — the biggest reliably measured are around 12 metres, and the larger figures you sometimes see are hard to verify — but it feeds by cruising with its mouth open and straining seawater. It is a placid animal, and divers swim alongside them without trouble.
How do you tell one whale shark from another?
By its spots. The pattern of pale dots and stripes behind the gills is different on every animal, and researchers photograph it much as you would a fingerprint to follow individuals between feeding grounds. It is worth taking your time over that pattern when you color the page.
