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| Subspecies: | Unknown |
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| Est. World Population: | |
| CITES Status: | |
| IUCN Status: | Vulnerable |
| U.S. ESA Status: | Not Listed |
| Body Length: | |
| Tail Length: | |
| Shoulder Height: | |
| Weight: | |
| Top Speed: | |
| Jumping Ability: | (Horizontal) |
| Life Span: | in the Wild |
| Life Span: | in Captivity |
| Sexual Maturity: | (Females) |
| Sexual Maturity: | (Males) |
| Litter Size: | |
| Gestation Period: | |
Habitat:
The Whitetip Weasel Shark is a slender shark that inhabits shallow coastal waters to a depth of 20 m (Weigmann 2016). The largest known specimen is 96 cm total length (TL) (Ebert et al. 2013). Reproduction is placental viviparous with litter sizes of 2 pups (Ebert et al. 2013). The small litter size infers this species may have limited biological productivity. Age-at-maturity and maximum age are unknown and there is no such data from a congener, but it is available from a member of the same family, the Snaggletooth Shark (Hemipristis elongata) that also occurs along the east African coastline with an age-at-maturity of 2.5 years and maximum age of 14.7 years (Last and Stevens 2009, Smart et al. 2013), resulting in a generation length of 8.6 years. However, the Snaggletooth Shark reaches a considerably larger size than the Whitetip Weasel Shark (240 cm vs 96 cm TL) and therefore the generation length of the Whitetip Weasel Shark is likely to be shorter in reality.
Range:
The Whitetip Weasel Shark occurs in the Western Indian Ocean; known specimens are from Kosi Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (Compagno and Smale 1985), Nosy Be and Nosy Iranja, Madagascar (Fourmanoir 1961 cited in Compagno and Smale 1985), central Mozambique (D. Ebert and E. Heemstra, unpubl. data based on photographs, 2007), and the Gulf of Aden (Yemen) (I. Elhassan, pers. comm., 4 July 2019). The occurrence of this species between Mozambique and Yemen is uncertain.
Conservation:
There are no species-specific protections or conservation measures in place for this species. Recreational anglers in South Africa are restricted to one shark per species per day (maximum of 10 individuals per day) (da Silva et al. 2015), although enforcement is an ongoing issue. Its limited South African range is within the iSimangaliso Marine Protected Area (MPA), and it possibly occurs in other reserves, such as South Africa's uThukela MPA to the south, and Mozambique's Ponta do Ouro Partial Marine Reserve to the north. Further research is required on distribution, population size and trends, life history, and catch rates.