Leo’s my mate. I met him through work. But with Leo (and you may find this hard to believe), there isn’t any office politics, he doesn’t indulge in gossip and he never embarrasses himself at office Christmas parties. He may occasionally try to eat more than his fair share at lunchtime but he’s so polite about it no one takes offence. He’s not much of a conversationalist but you get the feeling he keeps on eye on what’s happening around him. He’s also the only one of his kind in his family

You see, Leo is a Leopard shark. If you want to get all technically Latin about it, his formal name is Stegostama fasciatum but everyone at work just calls him Leo; which, in the truly Australian way of giving things fairly unoriginal nicknames, is because he has the same skin markings as, yes you guessed it, a leopard. I have to say though, their markings are where the similarity ends. Leo doesn’t really race anywhere, he can’t climb trees and he’s not particularly stealthy… although he doesn’t mind spending time on his own. In fact, Leo was born looking more like a pedestrian crossing than a member of the big cat family so he’s actually a zebra shark…except he’s lost his stripes in his old age and everyone just calls him a leopard shark. But you have to be careful because there’s a leopard shark in America that looks nothing like ours so it can get terribly confusing.

Anyway, Leo’s the quiet achiever of the office. He just goes about his business and doesn’t interfere in anyone else’s. He’s probably never going to be famous; he doesn’t really have the flashy looks or the razor-sharp teeth that attracts the attention of the press or the public. But it doesn’t mean Zebra sharks are in any less danger than their big toothed famous cousins. Zebra sharks are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list of endangered species because people eat them and also like their fins… and Leo has some serious fins. His tail fin is as long as his body and these sharks can grow up to 3 metres long. In the wild they’re found throughout the Indo-Pacific, from southern Africa and the Red Sea to India, most of South-East Asia, New Guinea, New Caledonia and across northern Australia. So basically they like it warm and they like it pretty as they can usually be found hanging around coral reefs.

He’s got a big, bullish head tapering down to a slender tail and he swims a bit like an eel but on a grand scale. He’s got tiny eyes but, considering in the wild he would hunt at night and in coral crevices he probably doesn’t really need them. No-one really seems to know why they start out life as a Zebra shark and then develop their leopard print pattern and Leo certainly isn’t telling.

But then again, I don’t think Leo is really bothered by what he’s called or how he looks. He’s happy as long as he can eat and then sleep and then eat a little bit more. I’m lucky that I get to hang out with him everyday. In fact, I call him a mate.

Jane Mitchell is a scuba diving instructor who works at a public aquarium for her day job. She loves introducing people to the joys that can be found underwater and discovering everything she can about shipwrecks and sharks.

Her website is http://www.shipwrecksandsharks.com