- Where to see one
- 3 U.S. zoos in our directory hold black drum, confirmed against each zoo's own animal list.
Conservation status
Not Evaluated
This species has not been assessed for the IUCN Red List, so it sits outside the threat scale entirely.
About the black drum
The black drum is a large marine fish of the western Atlantic, found from Nova Scotia to Florida, around the Gulf of Mexico and along the southern Caribbean coast. It is most abundant off Texas. Adults are black or grey, while juveniles carry four or five bold vertical black bars on a light body. It lives in or near brackish water and feeds mostly on the bottom, using sensitive chin barbels to find mollusks and crabs, which strong pharyngeal teeth crush. Fish usually weigh 5 to 30 lb, but the largest recorded was just over 113 lb.
Black Drum facts
- A 20 kg black drum could potentially eat 40 oysters a day, and a group can badly damage an oyster bed in a day.
- Black drum can make tones between 100 Hz and 500 Hz during mating calls.
- In shallow water they have been seen feeding head down with their tails above the surface.
- They are believed to live up to 60 years.
Where to see black drum in the U.S.
3 zoos across 3 states
Find the closest one
Rank the 3 zoos holding black drum by how far they are from you. Your location is used in your browser to sort this list and is never sent to us.
AZAThe Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Accredited members have passed an independent inspection of animal care and welfare, safety, conservation and education, repeated every five years. Many smaller facilities never apply, so “not accredited” isn't a verdict on its own. What accreditation means · How we check this
Built from each zoo's own published animal list.
