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arrow Description: Nurse sharks are light yellowish brown to dark brown, with or without small dark spots. The nurse shark has a flattened body and a broad, rounded head with two conspicuous barbels between the nostrils which are used to help find food. The mouth is filled with rows of small, serrated teeth for crushing hard-shelled prey.

Generally slow and sluggish, nurse sharks spend much of their time resting on the ocean's bottom. Because this shark can pump water over its gills, it does not need to swim in order to breathe. If it must move, the nurse shark may even use its large front (or pectoral) fins to ?walk? along the ocean floor. Unlike many sharks, this species is non-migratory?the nurse shark adapts to cold by becoming even less active!

arrow Size/Maturity: Female nurse sharks, averaging 7? to 9 feet (2.2 to 2.7 m) and 165 to 230 pounds (75 to 105 kg), are slightly larger than their male counterparts. The estimated age at maturity for these animals is 18 years for males and 20 to 22 years for females.

arrow Habitat: The nurse shark is a nocturnal animal that rests on sandy bottoms or in caves or crevices in rock in shallow waters during the day. They occasionally occur in groups of up to 40 individual, as they lie very close together sometimes even piling upon one another.

Nurse sharks are very active during the night. In addition to swimming near the bottom or well off it, the nurse shark can clamber on the sea floor, using its flexible, muscular pectoral fins as limbs. Large juveniles and adults are usually found around deeper reefs and rocky areas at depths of 3-75 meters (10-250 ft) during the daytime and migrate into shallower waters of less than 20 meters (70 ft) deep after darkness.

Juveniles up to 170 cm (6 ft) are generally found around shallow coral reefs, grass flats or mangrove islands in 1-4 meters (3-13 ft) of water. They often lie in groups within limestone solution holes or under rock ledges.

Nurse sharks show a strong preference for certain resting sites, and repeatedly return to the same caves and crevices after a nocturnal activity.

arrow Food Habits: A nocturnal predator, the nurse shark feeds mainly on fish especially stingrays, molluscs (octopi, squids and clams) and crustaceans. Algae and corals are occasionally found in the stomachs as well. The nurse shark has small mouth, but its large, bellows-like pharynx allows it to suck in food items at high speed. This system probably allows the species to prey on small fish that are resting at night, species that are too active for the sluggish nurse shark to catch during the day. Heavy-shelled conches are flipped over, and the snail extracted by use of suction and teeth.

Young nurse sharks have been observed resting with their snouts pointed upwards and their bodies supported off the bottom on their pectoral fins. Some suggest this posture may possibly provide a false shelter for crabs and small fishes that the shark ambushes and eats.

arrow Predators: There are no species that regularly prey on nurse sharks. However some larger sharks are known to feed occasionally on them. Remains of nurse sharks have been found in lemon and tiger shark stomachs, and attacks on nurse sharks by bull sharks and great hammerhead sharks have been observed.

arrow Danger to Humans: Mainly non-aggressive, generally will swim away when approached. However, some unprovoked attacks on swimmers and divers have been reported. If disturbed it may bite with a powerful vice-like grip capable of inflicting serious injury. In some instances, jaws release was accomplished only after using surgical instruments. The frequency of bites has increased recently as a result of ecotourism feeding operations. ((Damn tourists. stare ))

It seemed that everytime I sat down to write in this journal, I was interrupted by something or other, be it an emergency or something not being just so. But here I am, finally. I'll write an extra long entry to make up for it.

I'm really not sure what I was expecting from my velvet. I suppose I just got so used to my tsubasa's presence of aura that I'd expected it from all creatures. Mackenzie, my little nurse shark velvet, has a very faint aura. I've had her for a week and have been poking at it gently, seeing if I can get a reaction. Sometimes I feel a faint spike, such as when I'm talking or reading aloud. Otherwise, she's very quiet, much like plushies are supposed to be.

I won her from a raffle from the holiday party at the Velveteen Toychest. I was literally dragged to it by Kanth, my old friend and current housemate. H--she, owns the place; I'm just rooming here for the time being. I've entertained the idea of getting my own place to live once spring comes. Prior to living with Kanth -- and her velvet skunk, Erae, as well as a number of other strange and lovely creatures -- I was "living" in a run down shack in a lonely corner of Barton Town, scraping together whatever I could for money. I'm much better off now, and probably a lot healthier now that I've got a roof over my head and accessible food.

It's also a lot better for Haruki, my butterfly tsubasa, and Mackenzie. I wouldn't have wanted them living in that cold shack with scraps for blankets... I wouldn't have taken them in with me if I'd still been there.

Anyway, it's kind of amusing how my luck seems to be. I entered a raffle that Kanth had organized, and shop owners all over Gaia had donated their pets -- including Miss Iris, owner of the Velvet Toychest. Wouldn't you know it, I won the velvet in that raffle, too. I decided that two velvets, at this point and time, were really too much to handle. There's this one person that I've seen hanging around the shop, named Keppit. So I let them have the velvet, instead, with a promise that Mackenzie and Keppit's future velvet will one day get together for a playdate.

So what exactly have I done all week with my lovely Mackie-kins? I've developed several, surely obnoxious, nicknames for her (Mackie-kins...?); read books to both her and her "brother;" listened to music that I've borrowed from Kanth (DDR mixes, Linkin Park's old stuff, and music by this techno-ish band called Celldweller)... I haven't brought her fishing with me, which is what I do for a living. I'm afraid the water wouldn't be good for her if I dropped her, so I leave her at home, curled up with Haruki.

Haruki is somewhat intrigued by her, but fairly indifferent to the whole situation. He is only an egg, afterall.

Back to the thing about water... I really have no idea what's going to happen when she reaches her animal and child stages. I asked Miss Iris if I should invest in a fish tank, and she said just to wait and see what happens. If she says so... doesn't mean I don't worry.

I need to be heading to bed, unfortunately. Haven't been feeling all that well lately (dizzy spells and such), so I could probably use all the sleep I can get. Going out on cold mornings to fish isn't exactly a good idea, but... it brings in the money, yes?