Bad at Goodbyes

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Ganges Shark.

Species Information 02:05

The Ganges Shark is a critically endangered freshwater shark native to South and Southeast Asia, to the river systems of India, Bangladesh and Indonesian Borneo. Its scientific name is Glyphis gangeticus and it was first described in 1839.

 

Description

The Ganges Shark is a river shark, medium-sized, roughly 6-7 feet in length snout to tailfin, with a kind of flattened streamlined grey, grey-ish brown body.

 

They are covered in densely packed, microscopic, overlapping placoid scales. These are tiny strong scales embedded in the skin that overlap like shingles on a roof, creating a flexible yet strong armor that protects the shark from predators and from abrasions: scrapes and scratches on their rocky riverbeds.

 

The shape and arrangement of the placoid scales also play a role in hydrodynamics, how water moves across the shark’s body; reducing drag and turbulence allowing for faster and more efficient movement through the water.

 

Shark bodies are described in three major sections, the head, the trunk (which is like the torso, the middle bit) and the tail.

 

The Ganges Shark has eight fins. Two dorsal fins on their back, two large pectoral fins on each side toward the front of the trunk, two smaller pelvic fins near the rear of the trunk, one anal fin and one caudal fin, that is the tailfin.

 

The Ganges Shark’s head has a short and rounded snout with a pair of nostrils at the underside of the tip. Their mouth is wide and long, with powerful jaw muscles. Their upper teeth are sharp and serrated for cutting, and their lower teeth are curved like hooks, designed for grasping and holding onto struggling prey.

 

Their eyes are small and dark and upward facing, a specific adaptation for their river habitat. The shark traverses the river bottom, visually scanning for the silhouette of prey above. They have specialized (NIK-ti-tay-ting) nictitating eyelids, a translucent membrane that protects the eye from murky sand and sediment-filled water, while still allowing them to see.

 

Toward the rear of the head on both sides are their gill slits, five on each side, which facilitates breathing, their underwater respiration.

 

The Ganges Shark’s snout and head are covered in thousands of tiny pores called ampullae of Lorenzini, part of a specialized electroreceptive sense system. The shark are able to detect the weak electrical fields generated by all living organisms; currents of micro-voltage produced by movement, muscle contraction, heartbeats, respiration.

 

The pores on the head open to gel-filled canals beneath the shark’s skin, leading to a cluster of sense cells. The gel-like substance acts as a conductor, allowing electrical signals from the environment to reach the shark’s nervous system. Now, this only works within like inches of the shark’s snout, but if say in dark murky waters, conditions with poor visibility, a prey fish swims, that muscle movement creates a tiny electric field. That electric  field creates a voltage difference between the external pores on the shark’s snout and the receptors at base of the internal canal at the nervous system. And so the shark can sense that differential, that voltage change, now alert to the presence of possible prey.

 

Diet

The Ganges Shark preys on small to medium-sized fish and crustaceans in their river habitat. Contrary to popular myth, the Ganges Shark does not consume mammals and specifically does not prey upon humans. Just fish, crustacean and occasional stingray.

 

Their hunting strategy likely involves a combination of seeking, ambush, and active pursuit. Their flattened body and coloration blend with the riverbed, their highly tuned sensory systems always scanning. Once a potential target is detected, the shark uses its strong tailfin to powerfully propel itself forward, seizing the prey within their wide jaws, with their hooked lower teeth.

 

Reproduction

Ganges Shark hunt alone, and in general are primarily solitary, only interacting with their own species for mating. Mating involves internal fertilization, with the male using his claspers (modified bits of the pelvic fins) to transfer sperm inside the female via her cloaca, an opening used for both digestive waste and reproduction. Once fertilized the embryos develop inside the mother’s body, receiving nourishment through a yolk sac placenta, connected to the uterine wall: the mother transfers oxygen and nutrients directly from her bloodstream to the developing pup via an umbilical cord.

 

Sharks are viviparous, they give birth to live young. So after gestation, the female births a litter of roughly 6 pups. The pups are born well-developed, already roughly 2 feet in length and capable of fending for themselves, able to navigate their environment and find food on their own. There is no parental care.

 

Juvenile Ganges Shark reach reproductive maturity at about 9 years, and they can live to roughly 25 years old.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

To sense the spark of life.

To shiver in unknowable ways for the electricity of a breath,

Of a heart.

To read the world in waves of voltage,

Privy to an invisible matrix,

The tiny charges that power our movement,

Our hunger, our being.

 

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Ganges Shark is native to South and Southeast Asia, to the lower river systems of West Bengal India, Bangladesh, and to the province of North Kalimantan, Indonesia on the island of Borneo. Specifically the Ganges river basin, and Hooghly River in India/Bangladesh and the Sesayap River Delta in Indonesia.

 

The Ganges Shark ranges from low-salinity very near-shore coastal waters, through the brackish river deltas and up roughly 60 miles upstream. These are tidal river systems, estuaries where freshwater meets the sea and river conditions are affected by the ocean tides, and by annual dry seasons and wet monsoon seasons.

 

The Ganges Shark moves throughout their range based on this seasonal salinity; moving upstream during the dry season as tidal saltwater pushes inland, and then back toward the river deltas when monsoon rains flood fresh water through the river systems

 

The climate is tropical. Summer temperatures can reach into the 100s°F, while winter lows can dip into the 40s°F. Rainfall is highly variable with roughly 80% of annual rainfall occurring during monsoon season, from June to October.

 

The Ganges Shark shares its home with:

Mola Carplet, Watercress, Green Puffer, Indian Ricefish, Cannonball Mangrove, Northern Fatnose Goby, Golden Snapper, Brittle Naiad, Blotched Tigertooth Croaker, Tank Goby, Java Barb, Sea Hibiscus, Four-banded Tiger Perch, Javanese Ricefish, Apple Mangrove, Climbing Perch, Mangrove Palm, Banded Archerfish, Orange Mangrove, Pool Barb, Rohu, Peach Knight Goby, Dussumier’s Fiddler Crab, Spotted Snakehead, Bartail Flathead, Gulio Catfish, and many many more.

 

Threats

The small remaining Ganges Shark population is threatened by overfishing and specifically bycatch. The shark will become entangled in fishing gear intended for other species, leading to accidental capture and mortality. They are less often hunted directly, though their fins and meat are sometimes consumed.

 

Additionally human encroachment has led to habitat loss and degradation. Construction of dams along their river systems has disrupted movement, and the migration and movement of their prey species. Pollution from industry, agricultural runoff, and untreated sewage threatens to contaminate their habitat. As a long-lived species, river sharks are susceptible to the bioaccumulation of heavy metals and pollutants, which can lead to organ failure, and reproductive issues.

 

Human induced climate change, the result of persistent over-reliance on fossil fuels further compounds these threats. Rising temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, and increased frequency of extreme weather events like flood disrupt ecosystem patterns, impacting prey abundance.

 

Conservation

Fortunately the Ganges Shark is legally protected in both India and Bangladesh. 

 

And in 2024, the Sesayap River was designated as an Important Shark and Ray Area. Conservationists there have initiated a program integrating local fishing communities and are currently lobbying the Indonesian government to implement national protection for the River and its species.

 

Nevertheless the Ganges Shark has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2021 and their population is currently in decline.

 

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 250 Ganges Shark remain in the wild.

Citations 19:53

Information for today’s show about the Ganges Shark was compiled from:

 

Chowdhury, G., Akash, M., Haque, A. (2017). Status of the Ganges river shark Glyphis gangeticus (Müller & Henle, 1839). Dhaka University Journal of Biological Sciences. 26. 111-116. – https://doi.org/10.3329/dujbs.v26i1.46355

 

Compagno, L. J. V. (n.d.). Glyphis gangeticus. Sharks of the World, Naturalis Biodiversity Center. – https://sharks.linnaeus.naturalis.nl/linnaeus_ng/app/views/species/taxon.php?id=62717

 

De, K., A. Dwivedi. 2025. Call to Action for Conservation of the Critically Endangered Ganges Shark (Glyphis gangeticus). Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems , 35(2). – 

https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.70080

 

Duhigg, K. (2020, June). The rare shark of the Ganga. Mongabay India. – https://india.mongabay.com/2020/06/the-rare-shark-of-the-ganga/

 

Dunphy-Miller, S. 2025. “Glyphis gangeticus” (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed July 2, 2026 – https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Glyphis_gangeticus/

 

Haque AB, Das SA (2019) New records of the Critically Endangered Ganges shark Glyphis gangeticus in Bangladeshi waters: urgent monitoring needed. Endangered Species Research 40:65-73. – https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00981

 

iNatualist - Hooghly River / Sesayap River Delta 

 

Jabado, R.W., Kyne, P.M., Nazareth, E. and Sutaria, D.N. (2018), A rare contemporary record of the Critically Endangered Ganges shark Glyphis gangeticus. Journal of Fish Biology, 92: 1663-1669. – https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.13619

 

Martin, R.A.  2005.  Conservation of freshwater and euryhaline elasmobranchs. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 85: 1049-1073. – https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315405012105

 

Martin, R. A. (n.d.). The mysterious, endangered river sharks (Glyphis spp.). ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research. – http://www.elasmo-research.org/conservation/river_sharks.htm

 

Rigby, C.L., Derrick, D., Dulvy, N.K., Grant, M.I. & Jabado, R.W. 2021. Glyphis gangeticus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T169473392A124398647. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-2.RLTS.T169473392A124398647.en

 

Saha, S., Pal, P., Halder, S., Dhara, K., & Saha, N. (2022). Shark diversity in the Indian Sundarban biosphere. FishTaxa, 23, 53-56. – https://fishtaxa.com/index.php/FishTaxa/article/view/50

 

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganges_shark

 

For more information about Shark conservation please see the Shark Conservation Fund at https://www.sharkconservationfund.org.

Music 21:39

Pledge 29:55

I honor the lives of all Ganges Shark. I will commit their name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Ganges Shark I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Spindle Palm.

Species Information 02:05

The Spindle Palm is a critically endangered flowering palm native to the Republic of Mauritius on Rodrigues Island in the southern Indian Ocean. Its scientific name is Hyophorbe verschaffeltii and it was first described in 1866.

 

Description

The Spindle Palm is a medium sized palm that generally grows to a height of 20 to 30 feet. Their light gray trunk, which lends the tree its name, is widest in the middle about halfway up the trunk, so: skinnier at the bottom near the root base, bulging at roughly the midpoint of their total height, and tapering again narrow at the top near the crown. 

 

The bulge is a water reservoir, allowing the tree to survive seasonal drought by storing water collected during rainy periods. Specialized internal cells absorb moisture, and store carbohydrates, expanding and dividing which results in this swollen midsection.

 

Palm trees have a different growth structure than a deciduous tree like a maple or an oak. Palm do not produce wood, and all growth develops from a single large bud, the Apical Meristem, which produces new leaves, upward. The leaves are attached by a flat, wide sleeve that wraps completely around the trunk. As the palm continues to grow upward and produce new leaves from the very top, leaves at the bottom die off leaving behind their leaf base. A palm trunk’s outer layer, its quote unquote bark, is in fact an accumulation of these past leaf bases, appearing as horizontal rings called leaf scars.

 

Atop the trunk is a roughly 2ft tall green crownshaft, from which the leaves grow. The Spindle Palm’s crown is usually 8 to 10 large, pinnate leaves. Pinnate means the leaves have a central stem with many smaller leaflets, or leaf blades, attached along its length, picture a stereotypical palm frond. In the case of the Spindle Palm these fronds are big, and can reach lengths of roughly 7 feet, with leaf blades as long as 2 feet. The leaves are dark green and have a leathery texture.

 

Reproduction

The Spindle Palm is monoecious, distinct male and female flowers grow on the same individual. Its reproductive cycle is continuous, with inflorescences, flower clusters of typically six, both male and female flowers, appearing throughout the year. These small, creamy white to yellowish flowers grow below the palm’s crown, and are pollinated primarily by insects, particularly bees, drawn to the flower’s nectar. The nectar provides a food source for the pollinators, who unbeknownst transfer pollen from the male flowers of one individual to the female flowers of another.

 

Once pollination occurs, the female flowers develop into small, oblong fruits that take several months to mature. The fruits are initially green, gradually turning yellow, orange, red and eventually ripening to a deep blackish purple. The heavy ripened fruit falls from the tree releasing a single, solid brown seed roughly half an inch in length.

 

Historically it is believed that the Spindle Palm’s seed were distributed by the now extinct Domed Rodrigues Giant Tortoise, and the Saddle-Backed Rodrigues Giant Tortoise. Both of whom were harvested, exported for food, or killed in habitat-destroying, land-clearing fires in the 1700s.

 

And so today there is no natural regeneration in the wild Spindle Palm population. Pollination is occurring and fruit is being produced but scientists are not observing any new seedlings; new Spindle Palm are only being produced through managed human cultivation.

 

Cultivated seedlings can take 10 to 20 years to reach reproductive maturity and start flowering. And we estimate the Spindle Palm can live 80 to 100 years in the wild.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

A dream of the before-times,

Of palm forest, of dense herds of giant tortoise,

Flocks of night heron, blue pigeon, and starling,

Giant day gecko in Ebony trees, skittering.

 

A green breathing Arcadia

An abundance in balance

 

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Spindle Palm is native to the small island of Rodrigues, in the Republic of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean, roughly 1500 miles east of the African mainland.

 

Rodrigues is a volcanic island; its land area is only 42 square miles, a strip of land roughly 11 miles long and 4 miles wide surrounded by hundreds of miles of ocean in all directions. The geography is diverse, white beach shoreline meets coastal plains and then gives rise to limestone uplands: caves, ravines, ridges, that peak at Mont Limon, a summit a quarter of a mile above sea level.

 

Historically the Spindle Palm was found across the island, today we find scattered individuals and small concentrations of the remaining population in Anse Quitor, Grande Montagne, and Ravine de la Cascade.

 

This is a seasonally dry tropical forest biome with marked seasonal contrasts: wet, windy summer months, and then prolonged periods of winter drought. The dry forest ecosystem is adapted to survive limited moisture availability and strong ocean winds.

 

This is a mild tropical maritime climate, with high humidity. Summer highs reach into the 90s°F and winter lows dip into 60s. The island sees roughly 40 inches of rainfall per year, which is concentrated in January, February, and March. In this rainy season the Spindle Palm stores water, to be later relied on during dry months like September and October when the island averages less than 2 inches of rain.

 

The Spindle Palm shares its island home with:

Mourning Gecko, Rodrigues Warbler, Plain Tiger Butterfly, Pink Trumpet-Tree, Beach Morning Glory, Royal Blue Pansy, Redleg Orbweaver, Common Waxbill, Asian House Gecko, Tall Pricklypear, Common Passionfruit, Indian Garden Lizard, Brown Noddy, Blue-billed White-Tern, Black-bellied Plover, White-tailed Tropicbird, House Sparrow, False Olive, Ruddy Turnstone, Rodrigues Flying-Fox, Mauritius Hemp, Zebra Dove, Common Myna, Pinkwing Stick Insect, Spotted House Gecko, Macao Paper Wasp, Rosy Wolfsnail, Baycedar, Little Heron, Common Bluetail, Madras Thorn, Rodrigues Day Gecko and many many more.

 

Threats

Historically the Spindle Palm was abundant on Rodrigues but roughly five hundred years of habitat destruction and human encroachment, specifically deforestation for resource extraction and land clearing for agriculture, has severely diminished their population.

 

Relatedly human introduced invasive plant species compete with the palm for scarce water resources. And invasive animals, pigs and goats, have overgrazed the island, feeding on seedlings before they can reach reproductive maturity. And introduced black rats consume seeds before establishment and germination.

 

Human induced climate change, resulting from persistent over-reliance on fossil fuels, also threatens the island. Global warming has resulted in average localized temperatures increasing by 1-2°F compared to mid-twentieth-century baselines. And shifting weather patterns have resulted in longer periods of drought and an increase in severity of powerful cyclonic storms. These storms deliver high winds and flash flooding, snapping tree canopies, stripping foliage, and destabilizing hillside soils.

 

Conservation

Fortunately most of the remaining Spindle Palm are in managed protected wilderness reserves on Rodrigues. In the late 20th century and now presently the island has made significant progress conserving, protecting, and restoring natural habitat. 

 

The Anse Quitor and Grande Montagne Reserve both have constructed perimeter fencing to deter invasive mammals and the land is actively managed to remove both invasive plants and invasive animals.

 

Established in 1997, the island’s Solitude Nursery has cultivated 15000 Spindle Palm seedlings and the program has reintroduced 1000 seedlings to the island.

 

And a program at the Francois Leguat Reserve is exploring the reintroduction of giant tortoises, in hopes they may play a similar role to their extinct ancestors, in aiding the regeneration of native vegetation.

 

Nevertheless the Spindle Palm has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1998 and their population is currently in decline.

 

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 20 adult Spindle Palm remain in the wild.

Citations 18:43

Information for today’s show about the Spindle Palm was compiled from:

 

Bailey, L. H. (1942). Palms of the Mascarenes. Gentes Herbarum, 6, 51–85. – https://media.e-taxonomy.eu/palmae/protologe/palm_tc_121020_P.pdf

 

Botânico, M. P., & Angyalossy, V. (2013). Is the secondary thickening in palms always diffuse? [Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Science 85(4)] Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 85(4), 1461–1472. – https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-37652013108612

 

Friedman, M. H., Andreu, M. G., Quintana, H. V., & McKenzie, M. (2010). Hyophorbe verschaffeltii, Spindle Palm: FOR 241/FR303, 5/2010. EDIS, 2010(4). – https://doi.org/10.32473/edis-fr303-2010

 

Henderson, A. (2024). Pollination Systems of Palms (Arecaceae). Journal of Pollination Ecology, 36, 144–248. – https://doi.org/10.26786/1920-7603(2024)782

 

iNaturalist - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=false&nelat=-19.653424450781902&nelng=63.51122182&quality_grade=research&subview=map&swlat=-19.779143834184264&swlng=63.317004655&view=species

 

Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. (n.d.). Plants of the World Online. Retrieved June 24, 2026. –  https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:667456-1

 

Maunder, M., Page, W., Mauremootoo, J., Payendee, R., Mungroo, Y., Maljkovic, A., Lyte, B. (2002). The decline and conservation management of the threatened endemic palms of the Mascarene Islands. Oryx, 36(1), 56–65. – https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605302000091

 

Mauritian Wildlife Foundation. (2025). Annual report: On the activities of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation year 2024. – https://www.mauritian-wildlife.org/mwf-files/files/files/Mauritian%20Wildlife%20Foundation%20Annual%20report%202024.pdf

 

Ortega-Chávez, N., & Stauffer, F. W. (2011). Ontogeny and structure of the acervulate partial inflorescence in Hyophorbe lagenicaulis (Arecaceae; Arecoideae). Annals of Botany, 108(8), 1517–1527. – https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcr149

 

Tatayah, V., Jhangeer-Khan, R. & Bégué, J.A. 2021. Hyophorbe verschaffeltii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T38582A67537366. Accessed on 23 June 2026. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-2.RLTS.T38582A67537366.en

 

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyophorbe_verschaffeltii

 

For more information about conservation on the islands of Mauritius please see the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation at https://www.mauritian-wildlife.org

Music 20:25

Pledge 27:11

I honor the lives of all Spindle Palm. I will commit their name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Spindle Palm I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.