---
title: "Voshaai"
description: "Alopias vulpinus — Vissen. The common thresher (Alopias vulpinus), also known as Atlantic thresher, is the largest species of thresher shark, family Alopiidae, reaching 6 m (20 ft) in length."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/thresher-shark
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Voshaai

> Alopias vulpinus — Vissen. The common thresher (Alopias vulpinus), also known as Atlantic thresher, is the largest species of thresher shark, family Alopiidae, reaching 6 m (20 ft) in length.

- Scientific name: *Alopias vulpinus*
- Category: `fish` (Vissen)
- Habitats: `sea` (Zee en kust)
- iNaturalist observations: 322
- Wikidata: [Q618595](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q618595)
- iNaturalist taxon: [93696](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/93696)

## Names

- en: Thresher Shark
- de: Gemeiner Fuchshai
- es: Tiburón zorro común
- fr: Requin-renard commun
- nl: Voshaai
- pl: Kosogon

## Countries with the most observations

US (148), CA (18), NZ (18), GR (14), CL (10), AL (8), MA (8), AU (5), ZA (5), DZ (4), IT (4), FR (3)

## Summary

The common thresher (Alopias vulpinus), also known as Atlantic thresher, is the largest species of thresher shark, family Alopiidae, reaching 6 m (20 ft) in length. About half of its length consists of the elongated upper lobe of its caudal fin. With a streamlined body, short pointed snout, and modestly sized eyes, the common thresher resembles the pelagic thresher (A. pelagicus). It can be distinguished from the latter species by the white of its belly extending in a band over the bases of its pectoral fins. The common thresher is distributed worldwide in tropical and temperate waters, though it prefers cooler temperatures…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_thresher

## Photo

![Voshaai](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/thresher-shark/medium.jpg)

Photo: Federico Biguzzi · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/195357587

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/thresher-shark?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).