Bull Shark

Bull Shark

The bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas, also known as the bull whaler, Zambezi shark or informally Zambi in Africa and Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is common worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers. The bull shark is well known for its unpredictable, often aggressive behavior. Many scientists agree that since bull sharks often dwell in shallow waters, they may be more dangerous to humans than any other species of sharks.

Unlike most other marine sharks, bull sharks tolerate fresh water. They can travel far up rivers. As a result, they are probably responsible for the majority of shark attacks on humans that take place near the shore, including many attacks attributed to other species. However, bull sharks are not true freshwater sharks (unlike the river sharks of the genus Glyphis).

Bull sharks are solitary hunters. They often cruise through shallow waters. They can suddenly burst into speed and can be highly aggressive, even attacking a racehorse in the Brisbane River in the Australian state of Queensland. They are extremely territorial and will attack other animals – including humans – that enter their territory. Along with the great white, tiger and oceanic whitetip sharks, bull sharks are among the four species considered the most dangerous to humans, and is probably the most dangerous of the four species. One or more bull sharks may have been responsible for the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, and which inspired the movie Jaws.

Many experts think the bull shark is responsible for most of the deaths around the Sydney Harbour inlets in the past.[citation needed] Most of these attacks were previously thought to be great whites. In India the bull shark cruises up the Ganges River where it has killed and attacked a large number of people. It also eats the corpses that the local population floats on the river. Many of these attacks have been wrongly blamed on the Ganges shark, Glyphis gangeticus,[citation needed] a fairly rare species that is probably the only other shark that can live comfortably in both saltwater and freshwater. The grey nurse shark was also blamed in the sixties and seventies.

Bull Shark

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