The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), also known as the Zambezi shark or, unoffi

cially, as Zambi in Africa and Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is a shark commonly

found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers. The bull sh
ark is known for its aggressive nature, predilection for warm shallow water, and
presence in brackish and freshwater systems including estuaries and rivers.
Bull sharks can thrive in both saltwater and freshwater and can travel far up ri
vers. They have even been known to travel as far up the Mississippi River as Ill
inois,[2] although there have been few recorded freshwater attacks. They are pro
bably responsible for the majority of near-shore shark attacks, including many a
ttacks attributed to other species.[3]
Unlike the river sharks of the genus Glyphis, bull sharks are not true freshwate
r sharks, despite their ability to survive in freshwater habitats.
Etymology[edit]
The name "bull shark" comes from the shark's stocky shape, broad, flat snout, an
d aggressive, unpredictable behavior.[4] In India, the bull shark may be confuse
d 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 i
n many other local names, including Ganges River shark, Fitzroy Creek whaler, va
n Rooyens shark, Lake Nicaragua shark,[5] river shark, freshwater whaler, estuary
whaler, Swan River whaler,[6] cub shark, and shovelnose shark.[7]Anatomy and ap
pearance[edit]
File:A female Carcharhinus leucas at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve, Fiji - pone.
0016597.s006.ogv
A female Carcharhinus leucas at the Shark Reef Marine Reserve, Fiji
A sketch of a bull shark
Bull sharks are large and stout, with females being larger than males. The bull
shark can be up to 81 cm (2.66 ft) in length at birth.[8] Adult female bull shar
ks 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). While a
maximum size of 3.5 m (11 ft) is commonly reported, there is a questionable rec
ord of a female specimen of exactly 4 m (13 ft). The maximum recorded weight of
a bull shark was 315 kg (694 lb) but may be larger.[3][9][10] Bull sharks are wi
der 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 s
hark's caudal fin is longer and lower than that of the larger sharks, and it has
a small snout, and lacks an interdorsal ridge.[8]
Bull sharks have a bite force of up to 600 kilograms (1,300 lb), pound for pound
the highest among all investigated cartilaginous fishes.[11]
Distribution and habitat[edit]
The bull shark is commonly found worldwide in coastal areas of warm oceans, in r
ivers and lakes, and occasionally salt and freshwater streams if they are deep e
nough. It is found to a depth of 150 metres (490 ft), but does not usually swim
deeper than 30 metres (98 ft).[12] In the Atlantic, it is found from Massachuset
ts to southern Brazil, and from Morocco to Angola. In the Indian Ocean, it is fo
und from South Africa to Kenya, India, and Vietnam to Australia.
Populations of bull sharks are also found in several major rivers, with more tha
n 500 bull sharks thought to be living in the Brisbane River. One was reportedly
seen swimming the flooded streets of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, during th
e Queensland floods of late 2010/early 2011.[13] Several were sighted in one of
the main streets of Goodna, Queensland, shortly after the peak of the January 20
11, floods.[14] There are greater numbers still in the canals of the Gold Coast,
also in Queensland. A large bull shark was caught in the canals of Scarborough,
two hours north of the Gold Coast.[15] In the Pacific Ocean, it can be found fr
om Baja California to Ecuador. The shark has traveled 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi
) up the Amazon River to Iquitos in Peru.[16] It also lives in fresh water Lake
Nicaragua, in the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers of West Bengal and Assam in east
ern India and adjoining Bangladesh. It can live in water with a high salt conten
t as in St. Lucia Estuary in South Africa. The bull shark is generally prolific
in the warm coastal waters and estuarine systems of the Mozambique Channel and s
outhward, including Kwa-Zulu Natal and Mozambique. The species has a distinct pr
eference for warm currents.
After Hurricane Katrina, many bull sharks were sighted in Lake Pontchartrain.[17
] Bull sharks have occasionally gone up the Mississippi River as far upstream as
Alton, Illinois.[18] They have also been found in the Potomac River in Maryland
.[19][20] A golf course lake in Queensland, Australia is the home to several bul
l sharks. They are believed to have become trapped following a flood in the 1990
s. The golf course has capitalized on the novelty and now hosts a monthly tourna
ment called the "Shark Lake Challenge."[21]
Behavior[edit]
Freshwater tolerance[edit]
The bull shark is the best known of 43 species of elasmobranch in ten genera and
four families to have been reported in fresh water.[22] Other species that ente
r rivers include the stingrays (Dasyatidae, Potamotrygonidae and others) and saw
fish (Pristidae). Some skates (Rajidae), smooth dogfishes (Triakidae), and sandb
ar sharks (Carcharhinus plumbeus) regularly enter estuaries. Elasmobranchs' abil
ity 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 ure
a and trimethylamine oxide, but bull sharks living in fresh water show a signifi
cantly reduced concentration of urea within their blood.[23] Despite this, the s
olute composition (i.e. osmolarity) of a bull shark in freshwater 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 s
hark's body. However, bull sharks in freshwater possess several organs with whic
h to maintain appropriate salt and water balance; these are the rectal gland, ki
dneys, liver and gills. All elasmobranchs have a rectal gland which functions in
the excretion of excess salts accumulated as a consequence of living in seawate
r. Bull sharks in freshwater environments decrease the salt-excretory activity o
f the rectal gland, thereby conserving sodium and chloride.[24] The kidneys prod
uce large amounts of dilute urine, but also play an important role in the active
reabsorption of solutes into the blood.[24] The gills of bull sharks are likely
to be involved in the uptake of sodium and chloride from the surrounding freshw
ater,[25] whereas urea is produced in the liver as required with changes in envi
ronmental salinity.[26]
Initially, scientists thought the sharks in Lake Nicaragua belonged to an endemi
c species, the Lake Nicaragua shark (Carcharhinus nicaraguensis). In 1961, follo
wing specimens comparisons, taxonomists synonymized them.[27] They can jump alon
g the rapids of the San Juan River (which connects Lake Nicaragua and the Caribb
ean Sea), almost like salmon.[12] Bull sharks tagged inside the lake have later
been caught in the open ocean (and vice versa), with some taking as little as se
ven to eleven days to complete the journey.[27]
Bull sharks are able to regulate themselves to live in either fresh water or sal
t water. It is possible for the bull shark to live in fresh water for its entire
life, but it has been observed that this does not happen for certain reasons, m
ostly due to reproduction. Young bull sharks will leave the brackish water in wh
ich they are born and move out into the sea in order to breed with bull sharks o
f the other sex. While theoretically, it may be possible for bull sharks to live
in purely freshwater, it was observed that the bull sharks that were being expe
rimented on had died within four years. The stomach was opened and all that was
found were 2 small fishes that were unidentifiable. The cause of death could hav
e been starvation since the primary food source for bull sharks resides in salt
water.[28]
The bull shark is known to be able to live in both saltwater and freshwater. It
was found in a research experiment that, the majority of the time, the bull shar
ks were found to be at the mouth of an estuary.[29] The water salinity was teste
d every month to determine if the difference in salinity is what drove bull shar
ks into the river. It was found that the bull shark stayed at the mouth of the r
iver independent of the salinity of the water.[29] The driving factor for a bull
shark to be in freshwater or saltwater is its age; as the bull shark ages the t
olerance for very low or high salinity increases.[29] It was found that the majo
rity 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, as they h
ad developed a much better tolerance for the salinity.[29] This is one of the re
asons why adult bull sharks will travel into the river (in order to reproduce).
The newborns are not born with a high tolerance for high salinity, so they are b
orn in freshwater and stay there until they are able to travel out.
Diet[edit]
Bull sharks are typically solitary hunters,[12] but occasionally hunt in pairs.[
30] They often cruise through shallow waters, and can accelerate rapidly and be
highly aggressive, even possibly attacking a racehorse in the Brisbane River in
the Australian state of Queensland.[31]
The bull shark's diet consists mainly of bony fish and sharks, including other b
ull sharks,[3] but can also include turtles, birds, dolphins, terrestrial mammal
s, crustaceans, echinoderms, and stingrays. They hunt in murky waters because it
is harder for the prey to see the shark coming.[1][32] Bull sharks have been kn
own to use the bump-and-bite technique to attack their prey. Bull sharks have at
tacked hippopotamuses in Africa's Zambezi River, based on bite marks on the hipp
os' feet.[33]
The bull shark is known to be a solitary hunter, although there are brief moment
s in which the bull sharks will team up with another bull shark in order to make
it easier to hunt and to trick prey.[34]
Sharks are known to be opportunistic when feeding,[35] 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 l
onger period of time in order to avoid starvation.[35] The bull shark continues
to bite and tackle its prey until the prey is unable to escape, and then the bul
l shark eats its prey.[35]
The bull shark is known to populate the Indian River. In Florida, researchers ex
amined the contents of the bull shark's stomach. Stingrays and Ariid catfishes,
which are both abundant in the Indian River, were found to be in the stomach of
examined bull sharks.[36] One surprising discovery, the head of a small shark, w
as found, suggesting that the bull shark is capable of feeding upon other sharks
in addition to the other fish that it preys on.[36]
It also has been cited in the San Juan River area, that the bull shark had consu
med sharks. Vorenburg induced a "shark eat shark" environment in which lemon sha
rks and bull sharks were put into an environment where they had to fight for foo
d, and the injured sharks from the bouts were consumed by the bull sharks. In ad
dition to lemon sharks, they also fed on young sandbar sharks. There has been no
evidence to prove that there are different feeding patterns among young and adu
lts or among males and females. Bull sharks do not actively seek out food, but r
ather are dependent on anything that is available to them. As part of their surv
ival mechanism, bull sharks will regurgitate the food in their stomachs in order
to escape from a predator as they stop for the regurgitated food.[37]
Reproduction[edit]
Bull sharks mate during late summer and early autumn,[38] often in the brackish
water of river mouths. After gestating for 12 months, a bull shark may give birt
h to four to ten live young.[38] They are viviparous; they are born live and fre
e-swimming. The young are about 70 cm (27.6 in) at birth and take 10 years to re
ach maturity. Coastal lagoons, river mouths, and other low-salinity estuaries ar
e common nursery habitats.[3]
175 cm to 235 cm seems to be the size of a fully matured female bull shark that
produce viable eggs for fertilization. The courting routine between bull sharks
has not been observed in detail as of yet. It is speculated that the male bites
the females on the tail until they turn upside down and they male can copulate a
t that point. At some points, the harassment of the male can become violent. It
is not uncommon to see scratches and other marks on a mature female from the mat
ing ritual.[39]
Bull sharks have an unusual migratory pattern in comparison to other sharks. The
y are found in rivers all over the world. They have the ability to go from seawa
ter and freshwater. They give birth in the freshwater of rivers. The young bull
sharks are free from predators while they grow up in the river before they go ou
t to the sea in order to find mates.[40]
The ability to be able to survive in both freshwater and saltwater also gives an
other benefit that has been driven by evolution. Because the majority of sharks
are only able to survive in saltwater, the bull shark has evolved to have their
offspring in the freshwater where other sharks cannot enter.[41] The freshwater
acts as a protective area where the young are able to grow and mature without th
e threat of larger sharks preying on the younger bull sharks.[41] This is an exp
lanation for the behavior that is observed from the bull sharks as to why there
would be any reason for the adult bull shark to ever travel into a freshwater ar
ea despite being able to tolerate the high salinity of marine water.
Bull sharks are born alive in freshwater which is in contrast to most sharks sin
ce they lay eggs. The average litter for a female bull shark is around 1 to 13 p
ups.[42] The average time span for a female bull shark to be pregnant is around
10 to 11 months.[43] 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 y
ears.[43] Unlike most sharks though, the bull shark does not rear their young li
ke other sharks, the young bull sharks are born into flat, protected areas.[43]
Freshwater presents a natural defense against most larger predators, and the fla
t land is an added defense as most large predators will not swim in shallow area
s. This increases their chance of survival since the parents do not rear the you
ng in the traditional manner. This is also the reason why there is a high mortal
ity rate in young bull sharks. Since the parents do not rear and protect the you
ng, any predator that is able to attack a young bull shark is easily able to kil
l and eat the young bull shark without much resistance.[44]