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Bull shark

February 10, 2023

The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), also known as the Zambezi shark (informally zambi) in Africa and Lake Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is a species of requiem shark commonly found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers. It is known for its aggressive nature, and presence mainly in warm, shallow brackish and freshwater systems including estuaries and lower reaches of rivers.

Bull shark
Temporal range: Miocene–Recent [1]
Bull shark from Thailand
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Superorder: Selachimorpha
Order: Carcharhiniformes
Family: Carcharhinidae
Genus: Carcharhinus
Species:
C. leucas
Binomial name
Carcharhinus leucas
Range of bull shark

Bull sharks are euryhaline and can thrive in both salt and fresh water. They are known to travel far up rivers, and have been known to travel up the Mississippi River as far as Alton, Illinois,[3] about 1,100 kilometres (700 mi) from the ocean, but few freshwater interactions with humans have been recorded. Larger-sized bull sharks are probably responsible for the majority of nearshore shark attacks, including many incidents of shark bites attributed to other species.[4]

Unlike the river sharks of the genus Glyphis, bull sharks are not true freshwater sharks, despite their ability to survive in freshwater habitats.

Etymology

The name "bull shark" comes from the shark's stocky shape, broad, flat snout, and aggressive, unpredictable behavior.[5] In India, the bull shark may be confused with the Sundarbans or Ganges shark. In Africa, it is also commonly called the Zambezi River shark, or just "zambi".

Its wide range and diverse habitats result in many other local names, including Ganges River shark, Fitzroy Creek whaler, van Rooyen's shark, Lake Nicaragua shark,[6] river shark, freshwater whaler, estuary whaler, Swan River whaler,[7] cub shark, and shovelnose shark.[8]

Evolution

Some of the bull shark's closest living relatives do not have the capabilities of osmoregulation. Its genus, Carcharhinus, also includes the sandbar shark, which is not capable of osmoregulation.[9]

The bull shark shares numerous similarities with river sharks of the genus Glyphis, and other species in the genus Carcharhinus, but its phylogeny has not been cleared yet.[10]

Anatomy and appearance

Bull sharks are large and stout, with females being larger than males. The bull shark can be up to 81 cm (2 ft 8 in) in length at birth.[11] Adult female bull sharks average 2.4 m (8 ft) long and typically weigh 130 kg (290 lb), whereas the slightly smaller adult male averages 2.25 m (7 ft) and 95 kg (209 lb). While a maximum size of 3.5 m (11 ft) is commonly reported, a single record exists of a female specimen of exactly 4.0 m (13 ft).[4][12][13] A 3.25 m (10.7 ft) long pregnant individual reached 450 kg (990 lb).[14] Bull sharks are wider and heavier than other requiem sharks of comparable length, and are grey on top and white below. The second dorsal fin is smaller than the first. The bull shark's caudal fin is longer and lower than that of the larger sharks, and it has a small snout, and lacks an interdorsal ridge.[11]

Bull sharks have a bite force up to 5,914 newtons (1,330 lbf), weight for weight the highest among all investigated cartilaginous fishes.[15]

  • A female at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve, a private project in Fiji

  •  

    Upper teeth

  •  

    Lower teeth

  •  

    Electron micrograph of an upper tooth

Exceptional specimens

In early June 2012, off the coast of the Florida Keys near the western part of the Atlantic Ocean, a female believed to measure at least 2.4 m (8 ft) and 360–390 kg (800–850 lb) was caught by members of the R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program.[12][13] In the Arabian Sea, off the coast of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, a pregnant shark weighing 347.8 kg (767 lb) and measuring 3 m (10 ft) long was caught in February 2019,[16][17] followed by another specimen weighing about 350 kg (770 lb) and measuring about the same in length, in January 2020.[18][19]

Distribution and habitat

The bull shark is commonly found worldwide in coastal areas of warm oceans, in rivers and lakes, and occasionally salt and freshwater streams if they are deep enough. It is found to a depth of 150 m (490 ft), but does not usually swim deeper than 30 m (98 ft).[20] In the Atlantic, it is found from Massachusetts to southern Brazil, and from Morocco to Angola.

Populations of bull sharks are also found in several major rivers, with more than 500 bull sharks thought to be living in the Brisbane River. One was reportedly seen swimming the flooded streets of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, during the 2010–11 Queensland floods.[21] Several were sighted in one of the main streets of Goodna, Queensland, shortly after the peak of the January 2011, floods.[22] A large bull shark was caught in the canals of Scarborough, just north of Brisbane within Moreton Bay. Still greater numbers are in the canals of the Gold Coast, Queensland.[23] In the Pacific Ocean, it can be found from Baja California to Ecuador.

The bull shark has traveled 4,000 km (2,500 mi) up the Amazon River to Iquitos in Peru[24] and north Bolivia.[2] It also lives in freshwater Lake Nicaragua, in the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers of West Bengal, and Assam in Eastern India and adjoining Bangladesh.[citation needed] It can live in water with a high salt content as in St. Lucia Estuary in South Africa. Bull sharks have been recorded in the Tigris River since at least 1924 as far upriver as Baghdad.[25] The species has a distinct preference for warm currents.[citation needed]

After Hurricane Katrina, many bull sharks were sighted in Lake Pontchartrain.[26] Bull sharks have occasionally gone as far upstream in the Mississippi River as Alton, Illinois.[27] Bull sharks have also been found in the Potomac River in Maryland.[28][29] A golf course lake at Carbook, Logan City, Queensland, Australia is the home to several bull sharks. They were trapped following a flood of the Logan and Albert Rivers in 1996.[30] The golf course has capitalized on the novelty and now hosts a monthly tournament called the "Shark Lake Challenge".[31]

Behavior

Freshwater tolerance

The bull shark is the best known of 43 species of elasmobranch in 10 genera and four families to have been reported in fresh water.[32] Other species that enter rivers include the stingrays (Dasyatidae, Potamotrygonidae and others) and sawfish (Pristidae). Some skates (Rajidae), smooth dogfishes (Triakidae), and sandbar sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus) regularly enter estuaries.[citation needed]

The bull shark is diadromous, meaning they can swim between salt and fresh water with ease.[33] These fish also are euryhaline fish, able to adapt to a wide range of salinities. The bull shark is one of the few cartilaginous fishes that have been reported in freshwater systems. Many of the euryhaline fish are bony fish such as salmon and tilapia and are not closely related to bull sharks. Evolutionary assumptions can be made to help explain this sort of evolutionary disconnect, one being that the bull shark encountered a population bottleneck that occurred during the last ice age.[34] This bottleneck may have separated the bull shark from the rest of the Elasmobranchii subclass and favored the genes for an osmoregulatory system.

Elasmobranchs' ability to enter fresh water is limited because their blood is normally at least as salty (in terms of osmotic strength) as seawater through the accumulation of urea and trimethylamine oxide, but bull sharks living in fresh water show a significantly reduced concentration of urea within their blood.[35] Despite this, the solute composition (i.e. osmolarity) of a bull shark in fresh water is still much higher than that of the external environment. This results in a large influx of water across the gills due to osmosis and loss of sodium and chloride from the shark's body. However, bull sharks in fresh water possess several organs with which to maintain appropriate salt and water balance; these are the rectal gland, kidneys, liver, and gills. All elasmobranchs have a rectal gland which functions in the excretion of excess salts accumulated as a consequence of living in seawater. Bull sharks in freshwater environments decrease the salt-excretory activity of the rectal gland, thereby conserving sodium and chloride.[36] The kidneys produce large amounts of dilute urine, but also play an important role in the active reabsorption of solutes into the blood.[36] The gills of bull sharks are likely to be involved in the uptake of sodium and chloride from the surrounding fresh water,[37] whereas urea is produced in the liver as required with changes in environmental salinity.[38] Recent work also shows that the differences in density of fresh water to that of marine waters result in significantly greater negative buoyancies in sharks occupying fresh water, resulting in increasing costs of living in fresh water. Bull sharks caught in freshwater have subsequently been shown to have lower liver densities than sharks living in marine waters. This may reduce the added cost of greater negative buoyancy.[39]

Bull sharks are able to regulate themselves to live in either fresh or salt water. It can live in fresh water for its entire life, but this does not happen, mostly due to the reproductive needs of the shark. Young bull sharks leave the brackish water in which they are born and move out into the sea to breed. Whilst it is theoretically possible for bull sharks to live purely in fresh water, experiments conducted on bull sharks found that they died within four years. The stomach was opened and all that was found were two small, unidentifiable fishes. The cause of death could have been starvation since the primary food source for bull sharks resides in salt water.[40]

In a research experiment, the bull sharks were found to be at the mouth of an estuary for the majority of the time.[33] They stayed at the mouth of the river independent of the salinity of the water. The driving factor for a bull shark to be in fresh or salt water, however, is its age; as the bull shark ages, its tolerance for very low or high salinity increases.[33] The majority of the newborn or very young bull sharks were found in the freshwater area, whereas the much older bull sharks were found to be in the saltwater areas, as they had developed a much better tolerance for the salinity.[33] Reproduction is one of the reasons why adult bull sharks travel into the river—it is thought to be a physiological strategy to improve juvenile survival and a way to increase overall fitness of bull sharks.[33] The young are not born with a high tolerance for high salinity, so they are born in fresh water and stay there until they are able to travel out.

Initially, scientists thought the sharks in Lake Nicaragua belonged to an endemic species, the Lake Nicaragua shark (Carcharhinus nicaraguensis). In 1961, following specimen comparisons, taxonomists synonymized them.[41] Bull sharks tagged inside the lake have later been caught in the open ocean (and vice versa), with some taking as few as seven to 11 days to complete the journey.[41]

Diet

The bull shark's diet consists mainly of bony fish and small sharks, including other bull sharks,[4] and stingrays. Their diet can also include turtles, birds, dolphins, terrestrial mammals, crustaceans, and echinoderms. They hunt in murky waters where it is harder for the prey to see the shark coming.[2][42][43] Bull sharks have been known to use the bump-and-bite technique to attack their prey. After the first initial contact, they continue to bite and tackle prey until the prey is unable to flee.[44]

The bull shark is a solitary hunter, though may briefly pair with another bull shark to make hunting and tricking prey easier.[45][46]

Sharks are opportunistic feeders,[44] and the bull shark is no exception to this, as it is part of the Carcharhinus family of sharks. Normally, sharks eat in short bursts, and when food is scarce, sharks digest for a much longer period of time in order to avoid starvation.[44] As part of their survival mechanism, bull sharks will regurgitate the food in their stomachs in order to escape from a predator. This is a distraction tactic; if the predator moves to eat the regurgitated food the bull shark can use the opportunity to escape.[47]

Reproduction

Bull sharks mate during late summer and early autumn,[9] often in bays and estuaries.[48] After gestating for 12 months, a bull shark may give birth to 1 to 13 live young.[9][49]

They are viviparous, born live and free-swimming. The young are about 70 cm (27.6 in) at birth. The bull shark does not rear its young; the young bull sharks are born into flat, protected areas.[49] Coastal lagoons, river mouths, and other low-salinity estuaries are common nursery habitats.[4]

The male bull shark is able to begin reproducing around the age of 15 years while the female cannot begin reproducing until the age of 18 years.[49] The size of a fully matured female bull shark to produce viable eggs for fertilization seems to be 175 cm to 235 cm. The courting routine between bull sharks has not been observed in detail as of yet. The male likely bites the female on the tail until she can turn upside down and the male can copulate at that point. Mature females commonly have scratches from the mating process.[50]

Interactions with humans

 
Bull shark (Bahamas)

Since bull sharks often dwell in very shallow waters, are found in many types of habitats, are territorial by nature, and have no tolerance for provocation, they may be more dangerous to humans than any other species of shark.[20] Bull sharks are one of the three shark species (along with the tiger shark and great white shark) most likely to bite humans.[5]

One or several bull sharks may have been responsible for the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, which were the inspiration for Peter Benchley's novel Jaws.[51] The speculation that bull sharks may have been responsible is based on two fatal bites occurring in brackish and fresh water.

Bull sharks have attacked swimmers around the Sydney Harbour inlets.[52] In India, bull sharks swim up the Ganges, Bramaputra, Mahanadi, and other Indian rivers and have bitten bathers. Many of these bite incidents were attributed to the Ganges shark, Glyphis gangeticus, a critically endangered river shark species, although the sand tiger shark was also blamed during the 1960s and 1970s.

Bull sharks have also attacked humans off the coast of Florida.[53]

Visual cues

Behavioral studies have confirmed that sharks can take visual cues to discriminate between different objects. The bull shark is able to discriminate between colors of mesh netting that is present underwater. It was found that bull sharks tended to avoid mesh netting of bright colors rather than colors that blended in with the water. Bright yellow mesh netting was found to be easily avoided when it was placed in the path of the bull shark. This was found to be the reason that sharks are attracted to bright yellow survival gear rather than ones that were painted black.[54]

Energy conservation

In 2008, researchers tagged and recorded the movements of young bull sharks in the Caloosahatchee River estuary. They were testing to find out what determined the movement of the young bull sharks.[55] It was found that the young bull sharks synchronously moved downriver when the environmental conditions changed.[55] This large movement of young bull sharks were found to be moving as a response rather than other external factors such as predators. The movement was found to be directly related to the bull shark conserving energy for itself. One way the bull shark is able to conserve energy is that when the tidal flow changes, the bull shark uses the tidal flow in order to conserve energy as it moves downriver.[55] Another way for the bull shark to conserve energy is to decrease the amount of energy needed to osmoregulate the surrounding environment.[55]

Ecology

Humans are the biggest threat to bull sharks. Larger sharks, such as the tiger shark and great white shark, may attack them, but typically only target juveniles.[4] Crocodiles may be a threat to bull sharks in rivers. Saltwater crocodiles have been observed preying on bull sharks in the rivers and estuaries of Northern Australia,[56] and a Nile crocodile was reportedly sighted consuming a bull shark in South Africa.[57]

See also

References

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External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carcharhinus leucas.
 
Wikispecies has information related to Carcharhinus leucas.
  • Bull shark at Curlie
  • "Carbrook Golf Club, Australia - Bull Sharks in the Water Hazard". Golfing World. 15 December 2011. Archived from the original on 7 November 2021. (5 min 23 second video with audio)
  • Photos of Bull shark on Sealife Collection

February 10, 2023
bull, shark, bull, shark, carcharhinus, leucas, also, known, zambezi, shark, informally, zambi, africa, lake, nicaragua, shark, nicaragua, species, requiem, shark, commonly, found, worldwide, warm, shallow, waters, along, coasts, rivers, known, aggressive, nat. The bull shark Carcharhinus leucas also known as the Zambezi shark informally zambi in Africa and Lake Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua is a species of requiem shark commonly found worldwide in warm shallow waters along coasts and in rivers It is known for its aggressive nature and presence mainly in warm shallow brackish and freshwater systems including estuaries and lower reaches of rivers Bull sharkTemporal range Miocene Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N 1 Bull shark from ThailandConservation statusVulnerable IUCN 3 1 2 Scientific classificationKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ChordataClass ChondrichthyesSuperorder SelachimorphaOrder CarcharhiniformesFamily CarcharhinidaeGenus CarcharhinusSpecies C leucasBinomial nameCarcharhinus leucas J P Muller amp Henle 1839 Range of bull sharkBull sharks are euryhaline and can thrive in both salt and fresh water They are known to travel far up rivers and have been known to travel up the Mississippi River as far as Alton Illinois 3 about 1 100 kilometres 700 mi from the ocean but few freshwater interactions with humans have been recorded Larger sized bull sharks are probably responsible for the majority of nearshore shark attacks including many incidents of shark bites attributed to other species 4 Unlike the river sharks of the genus Glyphis bull sharks are not true freshwater sharks despite their ability to survive in freshwater habitats Contents 1 Etymology 2 Evolution 3 Anatomy and appearance 3 1 Exceptional specimens 4 Distribution and habitat 5 Behavior 5 1 Freshwater tolerance 5 2 Diet 5 3 Reproduction 5 4 Interactions with humans 5 5 Visual cues 5 6 Energy conservation 6 Ecology 7 See also 8 References 9 Sources 10 External linksEtymologyThe name bull shark comes from the shark s stocky shape broad flat snout and aggressive unpredictable behavior 5 In India the bull shark may be confused with the Sundarbans or Ganges shark In Africa it is also commonly called the Zambezi River shark or just zambi Its wide range and diverse habitats result in many other local names including Ganges River shark Fitzroy Creek whaler van Rooyen s shark Lake Nicaragua shark 6 river shark freshwater whaler estuary whaler Swan River whaler 7 cub shark and shovelnose shark 8 EvolutionSome of the bull shark s closest living relatives do not have the capabilities of osmoregulation Its genus Carcharhinus also includes the sandbar shark which is not capable of osmoregulation 9 The bull shark shares numerous similarities with river sharks of the genus Glyphis and other species in the genus Carcharhinus but its phylogeny has not been cleared yet 10 Anatomy and appearanceBull sharks are large and stout with females being larger than males The bull shark can be up to 81 cm 2 ft 8 in in length at birth 11 Adult female bull sharks average 2 4 m 8 ft long and typically weigh 130 kg 290 lb whereas the slightly smaller adult male averages 2 25 m 7 ft and 95 kg 209 lb While a maximum size of 3 5 m 11 ft is commonly reported a single record exists of a female specimen of exactly 4 0 m 13 ft 4 12 13 A 3 25 m 10 7 ft long pregnant individual reached 450 kg 990 lb 14 Bull sharks are wider and heavier than other requiem sharks of comparable length and are grey on top and white below The second dorsal fin is smaller than the first The bull shark s caudal fin is longer and lower than that of the larger sharks and it has a small snout and lacks an interdorsal ridge 11 Bull sharks have a bite force up to 5 914 newtons 1 330 lbf weight for weight the highest among all investigated cartilaginous fishes 15 source source source source source source source source source source A female at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve a private project in Fiji Upper teeth Lower teeth Electron micrograph of an upper toothExceptional specimens In early June 2012 off the coast of the Florida Keys near the western part of the Atlantic Ocean a female believed to measure at least 2 4 m 8 ft and 360 390 kg 800 850 lb was caught by members of the R J Dunlap Marine Conservation Program 12 13 In the Arabian Sea off the coast of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates a pregnant shark weighing 347 8 kg 767 lb and measuring 3 m 10 ft long was caught in February 2019 16 17 followed by another specimen weighing about 350 kg 770 lb and measuring about the same in length in January 2020 18 19 Distribution and habitatThe bull shark is commonly found worldwide in coastal areas of warm oceans in rivers and lakes and occasionally salt and freshwater streams if they are deep enough It is found to a depth of 150 m 490 ft but does not usually swim deeper than 30 m 98 ft 20 In the Atlantic it is found from Massachusetts to southern Brazil and from Morocco to Angola Populations of bull sharks are also found in several major rivers with more than 500 bull sharks thought to be living in the Brisbane River One was reportedly seen swimming the flooded streets of Brisbane Queensland Australia during the 2010 11 Queensland floods 21 Several were sighted in one of the main streets of Goodna Queensland shortly after the peak of the January 2011 floods 22 A large bull shark was caught in the canals of Scarborough just north of Brisbane within Moreton Bay Still greater numbers are in the canals of the Gold Coast Queensland 23 In the Pacific Ocean it can be found from Baja California to Ecuador The bull shark has traveled 4 000 km 2 500 mi up the Amazon River to Iquitos in Peru 24 and north Bolivia 2 It also lives in freshwater Lake Nicaragua in the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers of West Bengal and Assam in Eastern India and adjoining Bangladesh citation needed It can live in water with a high salt content as in St Lucia Estuary in South Africa Bull sharks have been recorded in the Tigris River since at least 1924 as far upriver as Baghdad 25 The species has a distinct preference for warm currents citation needed After Hurricane Katrina many bull sharks were sighted in Lake Pontchartrain 26 Bull sharks have occasionally gone as far upstream in the Mississippi River as Alton Illinois 27 Bull sharks have also been found in the Potomac River in Maryland 28 29 A golf course lake at Carbook Logan City Queensland Australia is the home to several bull sharks They were trapped following a flood of the Logan and Albert Rivers in 1996 30 The golf course has capitalized on the novelty and now hosts a monthly tournament called the Shark Lake Challenge 31 BehaviorFreshwater tolerance The bull shark is the best known of 43 species of elasmobranch in 10 genera and four families to have been reported in fresh water 32 Other species that enter rivers include the stingrays Dasyatidae Potamotrygonidae and others and sawfish Pristidae Some skates Rajidae smooth dogfishes Triakidae and sandbar sharks Carcharhinus plumbeus regularly enter estuaries citation needed The bull shark is diadromous meaning they can swim between salt and fresh water with ease 33 These fish also are euryhaline fish able to adapt to a wide range of salinities The bull shark is one of the few cartilaginous fishes that have been reported in freshwater systems Many of the euryhaline fish are bony fish such as salmon and tilapia and are not closely related to bull sharks Evolutionary assumptions can be made to help explain this sort of evolutionary disconnect one being that the bull shark encountered a population bottleneck that occurred during the last ice age 34 This bottleneck may have separated the bull shark from the rest of the Elasmobranchii subclass and favored the genes for an osmoregulatory system Elasmobranchs ability to enter fresh water is limited because their blood is normally at least as salty in terms of osmotic strength as seawater through the accumulation of urea and trimethylamine oxide but bull sharks living in fresh water show a significantly reduced concentration of urea within their blood 35 Despite this the solute composition i e osmolarity of a bull shark in fresh water is still much higher than that of the external environment This results in a large influx of water across the gills due to osmosis and loss of sodium and chloride from the shark s body However bull sharks in fresh water possess several organs with which to maintain appropriate salt and water balance these are the rectal gland kidneys liver and gills All elasmobranchs have a rectal gland which functions in the excretion of excess salts accumulated as a consequence of living in seawater Bull sharks in freshwater environments decrease the salt excretory activity of the rectal gland thereby conserving sodium and chloride 36 The kidneys produce large amounts of dilute urine but also play an important role in the active reabsorption of solutes into the blood 36 The gills of bull sharks are likely to be involved in the uptake of sodium and chloride from the surrounding fresh water 37 whereas urea is produced in the liver as required with changes in environmental salinity 38 Recent work also shows that the differences in density of fresh water to that of marine waters result in significantly greater negative buoyancies in sharks occupying fresh water resulting in increasing costs of living in fresh water Bull sharks caught in freshwater have subsequently been shown to have lower liver densities than sharks living in marine waters This may reduce the added cost of greater negative buoyancy 39 Bull sharks are able to regulate themselves to live in either fresh or salt water It can live in fresh water for its entire life but this does not happen mostly due to the reproductive needs of the shark Young bull sharks leave the brackish water in which they are born and move out into the sea to breed Whilst it is theoretically possible for bull sharks to live purely in fresh water experiments conducted on bull sharks found that they died within four years The stomach was opened and all that was found were two small unidentifiable fishes The cause of death could have been starvation since the primary food source for bull sharks resides in salt water 40 In a research experiment the bull sharks were found to be at the mouth of an estuary for the majority of the time 33 They stayed at the mouth of the river independent of the salinity of the water The driving factor for a bull shark to be in fresh or salt water however is its age as the bull shark ages its tolerance for very low or high salinity increases 33 The majority of the newborn or very young bull sharks were found in the freshwater area whereas the much older bull sharks were found to be in the saltwater areas as they had developed a much better tolerance for the salinity 33 Reproduction is one of the reasons why adult bull sharks travel into the river it is thought to be a physiological strategy to improve juvenile survival and a way to increase overall fitness of bull sharks 33 The young are not born with a high tolerance for high salinity so they are born in fresh water and stay there until they are able to travel out Initially scientists thought the sharks in Lake Nicaragua belonged to an endemic species the Lake Nicaragua shark Carcharhinus nicaraguensis In 1961 following specimen comparisons taxonomists synonymized them 41 Bull sharks tagged inside the lake have later been caught in the open ocean and vice versa with some taking as few as seven to 11 days to complete the journey 41 Diet The bull shark s diet consists mainly of bony fish and small sharks including other bull sharks 4 and stingrays Their diet can also include turtles birds dolphins terrestrial mammals crustaceans and echinoderms They hunt in murky waters where it is harder for the prey to see the shark coming 2 42 43 Bull sharks have been known to use the bump and bite technique to attack their prey After the first initial contact they continue to bite and tackle prey until the prey is unable to flee 44 The bull shark is a solitary hunter though may briefly pair with another bull shark to make hunting and tricking prey easier 45 46 Sharks are opportunistic feeders 44 and the bull shark is no exception to this as it is part of the Carcharhinus family of sharks Normally sharks eat in short bursts and when food is scarce sharks digest for a much longer period of time in order to avoid starvation 44 As part of their survival mechanism bull sharks will regurgitate the food in their stomachs in order to escape from a predator This is a distraction tactic if the predator moves to eat the regurgitated food the bull shark can use the opportunity to escape 47 Reproduction Bull sharks mate during late summer and early autumn 9 often in bays and estuaries 48 After gestating for 12 months a bull shark may give birth to 1 to 13 live young 9 49 They are viviparous born live and free swimming The young are about 70 cm 27 6 in at birth The bull shark does not rear its young the young bull sharks are born into flat protected areas 49 Coastal lagoons river mouths and other low salinity estuaries are common nursery habitats 4 The male bull shark is able to begin reproducing around the age of 15 years while the female cannot begin reproducing until the age of 18 years 49 The size of a fully matured female bull shark to produce viable eggs for fertilization seems to be 175 cm to 235 cm The courting routine between bull sharks has not been observed in detail as of yet The male likely bites the female on the tail until she can turn upside down and the male can copulate at that point Mature females commonly have scratches from the mating process 50 Interactions with humans Bull shark Bahamas Since bull sharks often dwell in very shallow waters are found in many types of habitats are territorial by nature and have no tolerance for provocation they may be more dangerous to humans than any other species of shark 20 Bull sharks are one of the three shark species along with the tiger shark and great white shark most likely to bite humans 5 One or several bull sharks may have been responsible for the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 which were the inspiration for Peter Benchley s novel Jaws 51 The speculation that bull sharks may have been responsible is based on two fatal bites occurring in brackish and fresh water Bull sharks have attacked swimmers around the Sydney Harbour inlets 52 In India bull sharks swim up the Ganges Bramaputra Mahanadi and other Indian rivers and have bitten bathers Many of these bite incidents were attributed to the Ganges shark Glyphis gangeticus a critically endangered river shark species although the sand tiger shark was also blamed during the 1960s and 1970s Bull sharks have also attacked humans off the coast of Florida 53 Visual cues Behavioral studies have confirmed that sharks can take visual cues to discriminate between different objects The bull shark is able to discriminate between colors of mesh netting that is present underwater It was found that bull sharks tended to avoid mesh netting of bright colors rather than colors that blended in with the water Bright yellow mesh netting was found to be easily avoided when it was placed in the path of the bull shark This was found to be the reason that sharks are attracted to bright yellow survival gear rather than ones that were painted black 54 Energy conservation In 2008 researchers tagged and recorded the movements of young bull sharks in the Caloosahatchee River estuary They were testing to find out what determined the movement of the young bull sharks 55 It was found that the young bull sharks synchronously moved downriver when the environmental conditions changed 55 This large movement of young bull sharks were found to be moving as a response rather than other external factors such as predators The movement was found to be directly related to the bull shark conserving energy for itself One way the bull shark is able to conserve energy is that when the tidal flow changes the bull shark uses the tidal flow in order to conserve energy as it moves downriver 55 Another way for the bull shark to conserve energy is to decrease the amount of energy needed to osmoregulate the surrounding environment 55 EcologyHumans are the biggest threat to bull sharks Larger sharks such as the tiger shark and great white shark may attack them but typically only target juveniles 4 Crocodiles may be a threat to bull sharks in rivers Saltwater crocodiles have been observed preying on bull sharks in the rivers and estuaries of Northern Australia 56 and a Nile crocodile was reportedly sighted consuming a bull shark in South Africa 57 See also Sharks portalOutline of sharks List of sharks List of fatal unprovoked shark attacks in the United States by decadeReferences Fossil Works Fossilworks org a b c Rigby C L Espinoza M Derrick D Pacoureau N Dicken M 2021 Carcharhinus leucas IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021 e T39372A2910670 doi 10 2305 IUCN UK 2021 2 RLTS T39372A2910670 en Retrieved 19 November 2021 Sharks In Illinois In Fisherman 16 July 2012 Retrieved on 30 November 2013 a b c d e Bull shark Florida Museum of Natural History Retrieved 8 September 2006 a b Bull shark National Geographic Retrieved 3 April 2011 Biology of Sharks and Rays ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research Retrieved 19 August 2010 McGrouther Mark 12 May 2010 Bull Shark Carcharhinus leucas Valenciennes 1839 Australian Museum Retrieved 19 August 2010 Allen Thomas B 1999 The Shark Almanac New York The Lyons Press ISBN 978 1 55821 582 5 a b c McAuley R B Simpfendorfer C A Hyndes G A amp Lenanton R C J 2007 Distribution and reproductive biology of the sandbar shark Carcharhinus plumbeus Nardo in Western Australian waters Marine and Freshwater Research 58 1 116 126 doi 10 1071 MF05234 The proportion of mature males with running spermatozoa increased from 7 1 in October to 79 and 80 in January and March respectively suggesting that mating activity peaks during late summer and early autumn Fowler S Reed T Dipper F 1997 Elasmobranch biodiversity conservation and management Proceedings of the international seminar and workshop Gland Switzerland IUCN a b Shark Species Bull Sharks Shark Diver Magazine 17 34 2003 Archived from the original on 19 April 2012 Retrieved 21 May 2011 a b The Biggest Bull Shark Ever The Rosenstiel School of Marine amp Atmospheric Science 18 July 2012 Archived from the original on 15 February 2013 Retrieved 10 November 2012 a b 9 Biggest Sharks Ever Caught Total Pro Sports com 4 August 2011 Purushottama G B Thakurdas S Ramkumar C Tandel S 2013 First record of Bull shark Carcharhinus leucas Valenciennes 1839 in commercial landings from New Ferry Wharf Mumbai Maharashtra PDF Marine Fisheries Information Service 218 12 15 Habegger M L Motta P J Huber D R Dean M N 2012 Feeding biomechanics and theoretical calculations of bite force in bull sharks Carcharhinus leucas during ontogeny Zoology 115 6 354 364 doi 10 1016 j zool 2012 04 007 PMID 23040789 for a popular summary see Walker Matt 12 October 2012 Bull sharks have strongest bite of all shark species BBC News Archived from the original on 20 April 2013 Retrieved 12 October 2012 Haza Ruba 21 February 2019 Fisherman under investigation after catching 350 kg bull shark The National Retrieved 19 January 2020 Ali Aghaddir 21 February 2019 Video Ministry investigating capture of 347 kg shark off Fujairah Gulf News Fujairah Retrieved 19 January 2020 Shaaban Ahmed 19 January 2020 Emirati fisherman catches 350 kg shark in UAE Khaleej Times Fujairah Retrieved 19 January 2020 Emirati man catches huge shark weighing 350 kg Gulf Today 19 January 2020 Retrieved 19 January 2020 a b Crist Rick Carcharhinus leucas University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Animal Diversity Web Retrieved 8 September 2006 Queensland rebuilding huge task BBC News 12 January 2011 Bull sharks seen in flooded streets Offbeat Weird News Odd and Freaky Stories in Northern Rivers Clarence Valley Daily Examiner Dailyexaminer com au 14 January 2011 Retrieved on 4 May 2012 Berrett Nick 14 November 2008 Canal shark shock Redcliffe amp Bayside Herald Quest Community Newspapers Archived from the original on 5 January 2009 Retrieved 26 March 2009 Shark Gallery Bull shark Carcharhinus leucas sharks med netfirms com Coad B W 2015 Review of the Freshwater Sharks of Iran Family Carcharhinidae International Journal of Aquatic Biology 3 4 218 High number of sharks reported in Lake Pontchartrain wwltv com 16 September 2006 Sharks in Illinois In Fisherman 16 July 2012 Retrieved 21 April 2017 8 Foot Shark Caught In Potomac River Nbcwashington com Retrieved on 4 May 2012 Zauzmer Julie 22 August 2013 Man catches 2 Bull sharks in Potomac The Washington Post Boswell Thomas 1 May 2013 Sharks at Carbrook Golf Club caught on film confirming they survived Brisbane floods Albert amp Logan News Retrieved 8 November 2017 Shark Infested Australian Golf Course Believed to Be World s First Fox News 11 October 2011 Compagno Leonard I V amp Cook Sid F March 1995 Freshwater elasmobranchs a questionable future Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department Archived from the original on 5 July 2008 Retrieved 27 April 2011 a b c d e Heupel Michelle R Colin A Simpfendorfer 2008 Movement and distribution of young bull sharks Carcharhinus leucas in a variable estuarine environment PDF Aquatic Biology 1 277 289 doi 10 3354 ab00030 Tillett B Meekan M Field I Thornburn D Ovenden J 2012 Evidence for reproductive philopatry in the bull shark Carcharhinus leucas Journal of Fish Biology 80 6 2140 2158 doi 10 1111 j 1095 8649 2012 03228 x PMID 22551174 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Pillans R D Franklin C E 2004 Plasma osmolyte concentrations and rectal gland mass of bull sharks Carcharhinus leucas captured along a salinity gradient Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology A 138 3 363 371 doi 10 1016 j cbpb 2004 05 006 PMID 15313492 a b Pillans R D Good J P Anderson W G Hazon N amp Franklin C E 2005 Freshwater to seawater acclimation of juvenile bull sharks Carcharhinus leucas plasma osmolytes and Na K ATPase activity in gill rectal gland kidney and intestine PDF Journal of Comparative Physiology B 175 1 37 44 doi 10 1007 s00360 004 0460 2 PMID 15565307 S2CID 330115 Reilly B D Cramp R L Wilson J M Campbell H A amp Franklin C E 2011 Branchial osmoregulation in the euryhaline bull shark Carcharhinus leucas a molecular analysis of ion transporters PDF Journal of Experimental Biology 214 17 2883 2895 doi 10 1242 jeb 058156 PMID 21832131 Anderson W G Good J P Pillans R D Hazon N amp Franklin C E 2005 Hepatic urea biosynthesis in the euryhaline elasmobranch Carcharhinus leucas Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A Comparative Experimental Biology 303A 10 917 921 doi 10 1002 jez a 199 PMID 16161010 Gleiss A C Potvin J Keleher J J Whitty J M Morgan D L Goldbogen J A 2015 Mechanical challenges to freshwater residency in sharks and rays Journal of Experimental Biology 218 7 1099 1110 doi 10 1242 jeb 114868 PMID 25573824 Montoya Rafael Vasquez Thorson Thomas B 1982 The bull shark and largetooth sawfish in Lake Bayano a tropical man made impoundment in Panama Environmental Biology of Fishes 7 4 341 347 doi 10 1007 BF00005568 S2CID 41507057 a b Fresh Waters Unexpected Haunts elasmo research org Accessed 6 April 2008 Kindersley Dorling 2001 in Animal David Burnie and Don E Wilson eds London amp New York Smithsonian Institution ISBN 0789477645 Snelson Franklin F Mulligan Timothy J Williams Sherry E 1 January 1984 Food Habits Occurrence and Population Structure of the Bull Shark Carcharhinus leucas in Florida Coastal Lagoons Bulletin of Marine Science 1 71 80 a b c Motta Philip J Wilga Cheryl D 2001 Advances in the study of feeding behaviors mechanisms and mechanics or sharks Environmental Biology of Fishes 60 1 131 156 doi 10 1023 A 1007649900712 S2CID 28305317 Bull Sharks Carcharhinus leucas Marinebio org 14 January 2013 Retrieved on 30 November 2013 Life of Bull Shark Life of Sea Life sea blogspot com 15 November 2011 Tuma Robert E 1976 Reproduction of the Bull Shark Carcharhinus leucas in the Lake Nicaragua Rio San Juan System In Thorson Thomas B ed Investigation of the Icthyofauna of Nicaraguan Lakes American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Pacific Shark Research Center Featured Elasmobranch Bull Shark Archived 4 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine Psrc mlml calstate edu 16 February 2009 Retrieved on 30 November 2013 a b c Fact Sheet Bull Sharks Sharkinfo ch 15 October 1999 Retrieved on 30 November 2013 Jenson Norman H 1976 Reproduction of the Bull Shark Carcharhinus leucas in the Lake Nicaragua Rio San Juan System In Thorson Thomas B ed Investigation of the Icthyofauna of Nicaraguan Lakes American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Handwerk Brian Great Whites May Be Taking the Rap for Bull Shark Attacks National Geographic News Retrieved 1 February 2007 Quinn Ben 15 March 2009 Shark attacks bring panic to Sydney s shore The Guardian London Frantz Vickie 18 July 2011 Bull Sharks Attacks Commonly in Warm Shallow Waters accuweather Bres M 1993 The behaviour of sharks PDF Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 3 2 133 159 doi 10 1007 BF00045229 S2CID 9695830 Archived from the original PDF on 3 December 2013 Retrieved 18 September 2013 a b c d Ortega Lori A Heupel Michelle R van Beynen Philip amp Motta Philip J 2009 Movement patterns and water quality preferences of juvenile bull sharks Carcharhinus lecuas in a Florida estuary Environmental Biology of Fishes 84 4 361 373 doi 10 1007 s10641 009 9442 2 S2CID 22544621 No Bull Saltwater Crocodile Eats Shark UnderwaterTimes com 13 August 2007 Retrieved 15 June 2008 FLMNH Ichthyology Department Bull Shark www flmnh ufl edu Retrieved 23 October 2015 Sources Carcharhinus leucas Integrated Taxonomic Information System Retrieved 23 January 2006 Froese Rainer Pauly Daniel eds 2005 Carcharhinus leucas in FishBase 09 2005 version Bull shark Carcharhinus leucas at marinebio org Sunday Herald Sun Sunday 23 April 2005External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carcharhinus leucas Wikispecies has information related to Carcharhinus leucas Bull shark at Curlie Carbrook Golf Club Australia Bull Sharks in the Water Hazard Golfing World 15 December 2011 Archived from the original on 7 November 2021 5 min 23 second video with audio Photos of Bull shark on Sealife Collection Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Bull shark amp oldid 1136436335, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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