text: This account follows Bass, D'Aubrey and Kistnasamy (1975a) and Compagno (1984) in combining several regional species of threshers from Chile, New Zealand and Australia into one wide-ranging species, A. vulpinus. Threshers examined by the writer from the west coast of the USA and South Africa agree closely in morphology and meristics.
  Threat to humans: Apparently harmless to people, though the size of adults of this species should invite respect. There is an unconfirmed anecdotal account of a fisherman on the western North Atlantic coast of the USA that was decapitated by a tailstroke from a big adult thresher (Mundus and Wisner, 1971). A few assaults on boats are doubtfully attributed to this species. Small specimens have been seen underwater by divers, at the surface or close to the bottom, and have circled them at the limit of visibility without acting aggressively. Michael (1993) notes that this species is shy and difficult to approach underwater, but mentions an incident where a thresher of this species was aggressive toward a spearfishing diver off New Zealand. To the writer's knowledge, this species has seldom if ever been kept in captivity and is not currently the subject of ecotouristic shark-diving.