Food Habits [33] They stayed at the mouth of the river independent of the salinity of the water. Distinctive Features The largest recorded bull shark was a 4.0 m (13.1 ft) female. Revised by Lindsay French and Gavin Naylor 2018. The name “bull shark” comes from the shark’s stocky shape, broad, flat snout, and aggressive, unpredictable behavior. The heaviest recorded bull shark was 694 lb (315kg) Bull sharks do not have an interdorsal ridge. Bull sharks are wider and heavier than other requiem sharksof comparable lengt… [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. The bull shark is diadromous, meaning they can swim between salt and fresh water with ease. The inshore nursery grounds are particularly at risk. They are aggressive predators and eat a variety of prey. Young bull sharks, however, can fall prey to tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier), sandbar sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus), and other Bull sharks. It is known by many different common names throughout its range including requin bouledogue in French speaking countries; Tiburon sarda in Spain; Zambezi shark, Van Rooyen’s shark in South Africa; The Ganges shark in India (though this name is also given to the freshwater river shark Glyphis gangeticus); The Nicaragua shark in Central America; The freshwater whaler, estuary whaler, and Swan River whaler in Australia; The shovelnose shark, square-nose shark, river shark, slipway grey shark, ground shark, and cub shark in various English speaking parts of the world. They estimated that in the first two years, the growth rate is about 16-18cm per year. Bull sharks have attacked swimmers around the Sydney Harbour inlets. In 1961, following specimen comparisons, taxonomists synonymized them. Bull sharks are frequently observed at recreational shark feeding dives in the Caribbean. [32] Other species that enter rivers include the stingrays (Dasyatidae, Potamotrygonidae and others) and sawfish (Pristidae). A … The second dorsal fin is smaller than the first. The Bull shark is also not as readily identified as is the white shark or the tiger shark, and so may be responsible for a large fraction of the of the attacks that go unassigned to species (ISAF 2018). Because it lives in estuarine and inshore regions, close to human populations, it is vulnerable to human impact. Parasites of the bull shark include the copepods Pandarus sinuatus and Perissopus dentatus. Data and formulas are from studies conducted by TPWD and other scientific groups All lengths are total lengths unless fork length (FL) or lower jaw to fork length (LJFL) is indicated. Some skates (Rajidae), smooth dogfishes (Triakidae), and sandbar sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus) regularly enter estuaries. It can live in fresh water for its entire life, but this does not happen, mostly due to the reproductive needs of the shark. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. [20] Several were sighted in one of the main streets of Goodna, Queensland, shortly after the peak of the January 2011, floods. It is one of very few species that readily move into freshwater, and apparently can spend long periods of time in such environments (Sharks of the Genus Glyphis are also capable of living in freshwater). Although there is no current evidence that aquarium collecting has had an impact on the wild population of bull sharks, the demand for sharks in the aquarium industry has grown substantially over the past 20 years. Bony fishes and small sharks make up the vast majority of the bull shark’s diet. Bright yellow mesh netting was found to be easily avoided when it was placed in the path of the bull shark. This is also a problem, since this gives them the most interaction with humans. Does the Bull Shark Make a Good Pet. No, bull sharks do not make good pets. Are bull sharks dangerous to man? Bull sharks occur in tropical to subtropical coastal waters, worldwide. This page was last edited on 24 November 2020, at 14:05. Bull sharks caught in freshwater have subsequently been shown to have lower liver densities than sharks living in marine waters. Since the bull shark occurs in several underdeveloped regions of the world including Central America, Mexico, India, East and West Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific, bites often go unreported. The first dorsal fin is large and broadly triangular with a pointed apex. 9997, 44894, 81283).Capable of covering great distances (up to 180 kilometers in 24 hours), moving between fresh and brackish water at random (Ref. [28][29] A golf course lake at Carbook, Logan City, Queensland, Australia is the home to several bull sharks. In Africa, it is also commonly called the Zambezi River shark, or just "zambi". Once they made it to the bank, the found the 6-foot bull shark. (2005). The courting routine between bull sharks has not been observed in detail as of yet. The Florida Museum is open! When ocean-bound, bulls eat bony fish, stingrays, dolphins, sea turtles, other sharks, mollusks, crustaceans and all kinds of other schooling fish. Bull sharks in freshwater environments decrease the salt-excretory activity of the rectal gland, thereby conserving sodium and chloride. A bull shark bites with a force of under 6000 newtons. Females reach a length of 4 meters, males are smaller – their length does not exceed 2.5 m. The maximum documented weight of the caught bull shark was 316.5 kg.Body color is not striking – the gray back smoothly passing on the sides to the light belly. [49] Coastal lagoons, river mouths, and other low-salinity estuaries are common nursery habitats. The maximum weight of a bull shark that has been registered is 315kg, roughly equal to 694lb. Bull sharks adapt well to being kept in captivity and are on exhibit in a number of public aquaria. The second dorsal fin is significantly smaller. They also occur in a number of river systems and some freshwater lakes (Compagno et al. [50], Bull sharks have an unusual migratory pattern in comparison to other sharks. The bite force of a bull shark is 5914 Newtons, which is the highest for any fish, weight for weight. The bull shark is one of the few cartilaginous fishes that have been reported in freshwater systems. A crocodile in South Africa was also reported to have consumed a bull shark. They were trapped following a flood of the Logan and Albert Rivers in 1996. If we're going to talk about the bull shark's diet, we need to break it up into the freshwater menu and the saltwater menu. Unlike the river sharks of the genus Glyphis, bull sharks are not true freshwater sharks, despite their ability to survive in freshwater habitats. Females are larger than males, reaching a length of around 7.8 feet (2.4 metres) as adults, and weighing around 285 pounds (130 kg). Their diet can also include turtles, birds, dolphins, terrestrial mammals, crustaceans, and echinoderms. It is known for its aggressive nature, and presence in warm, shallow brackish and freshwater systems including estuaries and rivers. The maximum reported length of the bull shark is 400 cm (~13 ft) (Compagno et al. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2009: e.T39372A10187195. London: Harper Collins Publishers Ltd. Simpfendorfer, C. & Burgess, G.H. The largest known bull shark was a female measuring 4 meters in length. [35] Despite this, the solute composition (i.e. This is mostly due to their feeding patterns, since they prefer murky waters. Size at birth is 56-81 cm (~2-3 ft) and size at maturity is 157-226 cm (~5-7 ft) for males and 180-230 cm (~6-7.5 ft) for females (Simpfendorfer and Burgess 2009). Coad, B. W. (2015). [31], 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. 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. They have been known to travel up the Mississippi River as far as Alton, Illinois,[3] about 700 miles (1100 km) from the ocean. 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. Still greater numbers are in the canals of the Gold Coast, Queensland. It’s large size, proclivity for freshwater, abundance and proximity to human populations, particularly in the tropics, makes it more of a potential threat than is either the White shark or the Tiger shark. Bull sharks get their name from their short, blunt snout, as well as their pugnacious disposition and a tendency to head-butt their prey before attacking. Females often bear mating scars on their flanks. 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 8 ft (2.4 m) and 800–850 lb (360–390 kg) was caught by members of the R.J. Dunlap Marine Conservation Program. 1995) and maximum reported weight is 316.5 kg (~698 pounds) (IGFA 2001). [9][49], They are viviparous, born live and free-swimming. They were testing to find out what determined the movement of the young bull sharks. Bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) is well-known for its unpredictable, capricious and aggressive nature.More than any of the other sharks, bull shark is the most feared and dangerous. The name "bull shark" comes from the shark's stocky shape, broad, flat snout, and aggressive, unpredictable behavior. After fitting the massive shark with an ID tag, they released her back into the deep blue. They are opportunistic feeders targeting bony fishes, sharks, turtles, birds, dolphins and terrestrial mammals. [30] The golf course has capitalized on the novelty and now hosts a monthly tournament called the "Shark Lake Challenge". "Branchial osmoregulation in the euryhaline bull shark, "Mechanical challenges to freshwater residency in sharks and rays", "Advances in the study of feeding behaviors, mechanisms, and mechanics or sharks", Pacific Shark Research Center » Featured Elasmobranch – Bull Shark, "Shark nursery areas: concepts, definition characterization and assumptions", "Great Whites May Be Taking the Rap for Bull Shark Attacks", "Shark attacks bring panic to Sydney's shore", "Bull Sharks Attacks Commonly in Warm, Shallow Waters", "No Bull: Saltwater Crocodile Eats Shark", "FLMNH Ichthyology Department: Bull Shark", "Carbrook Golf Club, Australia - Bull Sharks in the Water Hazard", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bull_shark&oldid=990439826, Taxa named by Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Capture for shark fin soup is a primary cause of the population decline of this species. [49] The size of a fully matured female bull shark to produce viable eggs for fertilization seems to be 175 cm to 235 cm. Initially, scientists thought the sharks in Lake Nicaragua belonged to an endemic species, the Lake Nicaragua shark (Carcharhinus nicaraguensis). 2005). It has not yet been conclusively resolved. Coloration Bull sharks are pale to dark gray above, fading to a pale cream color on their underside. [52] The freshwater acts as a protective area where the young are able to grow and mature without the threat of larger sharks preying on the younger bull sharks. The male likely bites the female on the tail until she can turn upside down and the male can copulate at that point. [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. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2009-2.RLTS.T39372A10187195.en. They can be found attached to the body surface, often in the axil region of the pectoral and pelvic fins. [56] It was found that the young bull sharks synchronously moved downriver when the environmental conditions changed. The maximum reported length of the bull shark is 400 cm (~13 ft) (Compagno et al. 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. The bull shark prefers to live in shallow coastal waters less than 100 feet deep (30 m), but ranges from 3-450 feet deep (1-150 m). Adult female bull sharks average 2.4 m (7.9 ft) long and typically weigh 130 kg (290 lb), whereas the slightly smaller adult male averages 2.25 m (7.4 ft) and 95 kg (209 lb). Description. A typical female bull shark is 2.4 m (7.9 ft) long and weighs 130 kg (290 lb), while a male averages 2.25 m (7.4 ft) and 95 kg (209 lb). Masks are required at all times. This is the result of a longer … Length/Weight Conversions for Marine Fishes of Texas. The bull shark has some unusual traits compared to its cousins: thanks to how their bodies regulate salt, they can exist just as comfortably in freshwater as they can in the ocean, which means they often appear in large rivers and lakes which sit within 100 miles of the sea. No, bull sharks do not make good pets. This may reduce the added cost of greater negative buoyancy. [5] In India, the bull shark may be confused with the Sundarbans or Ganges shark. Are bony fish such as salmon and tilapia and are on exhibit in a number of systems! 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