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Tiger Cowrie

Tiger cowrie shell
Shiny cowrie shell with brown spots
Today’s WoW Cypraea tigris, commonly known as the tiger cowrie, is a beautiful marine gastropod from our diverse invertebrates collection. The tiger cowrie is a species of large sea snail that lives in warm reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific Ocean. These snails can be found from off the eastern coast of Africa all the way to the Hawaiian Islands. Despite having a very distinctive pattern on its shell, the beautiful colors are difficult to see when the snail extends its fleshy mantle and wraps the mantle around its shell. This mantle has hundreds of short protrusions that provide useful camouflage within the reef. When the tiger cowrie is threatened, it protects itself by retracting its mantle back into its shell. The constant motion of the mantle covering and uncovering the shell causes the shell to self-polish, giving the tiger cowrie its characteristic glossy appearance. These animals are important to their reef ecosystems because the juveniles eat algae and the adults become predators that eat other small invertebrates.

The Hawaiian word for cowrie is Leho. One of the most common species of cowrie in Hawaii is the tiger cowrie, which has become vital in the fight against various invasive marine species. The Leho voraciously eats invasive sponges, thus keeping Hawaiian reef habitats healthier by freeing up space and resources for native animals. The Hawaiian subspecies of tiger cowrie grows larger than those found elsewhere, up to 6 inches long as opposed to the average of 4 inches found outside the islands. Traditional fishing practices use the Leho shells as lures to catch octopus, which cannot resist a large meal.

Tiger cowries were once very common, but their populations have been declining in recent decades due to habitat loss caused by dynamite fishing and reef die-offs. However, for now, the tiger cowrie remains a common fixture in reefs across the Indo-Pacific and is important to many people and marine ecosystems.

Common name: Tiger Cowrie or Leho
Scientific name: Cypraea tigris
Catalog number: UCM 25988
Locality: Pacific Ocean, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Marshall Islands, Ujelang Atoll
Collector: unknown, collection data unknown, likely 1960’s
Read more about tiger cowries on the Right Blue blog

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