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Marine Life Encyclopedia

Sharks & Rays

Bull Shark

Carcharhinus leucas

Distribution

Worldwide in tropical to warm temperate latitudes

ECOSYSTEM/HABITAT

Coastal seas and slow moving, coastal rivers (freshwater)

FEEDING HABITS

Opportunistic predator

TAXONOMY

Order Carcharhiniformes (groundsharks), Family Carcharhinidae (requiem sharks)

The bull shark is a predatory species that lives in coastal seas and is the shark with the best ability to move into freshwaters – particularly large, coastal rivers and lakes. They are able to move back and forth between saltwater and freshwater with ease. This behavior brings them into more contact with humans than most species of sharks, and they are therefore responsible for fatally biting more people than any other species.

Reaching lengths of 11 feet (3.5 m) and weights up to nearly 700 pounds (315 kg), the bull shark is one of the largest requiem sharks (Family Carcharhinide). They are aggressive predators and eat a variety of prey. They are known to eat several species of bony fishes and also small sharks, some mammals (both terrestrial and marine), seabirds, and occasionally sea turtles. Large, adult bull sharks do not have any natural predators. Bull sharks do not mature until they are 15 or 20 years old. They mate via internal fertilization and give birth to well-developed, live young. Though they give live birth, bull sharks do not connect to their young through a placenta. Instead, during the gestation period, the embryos survive off of yolk sacs attached to each individual.

Bull sharks do not just venture into freshwater for short periods. They travel far upriver in some places (including the Nicaragua River, the Zambezi River, and the Mississippi River) and there is a semi-permanent population in Lake Nicaragua that was thought until recently to be a separate species. They also apparently give birth in freshwater.

Bull sharks have been fished, commercially, in the past, but currently the biggest threat that they face is accidental capture in fisheries targeting other species. Most of these accidental captures take place when these sharks are upriver. They are also occasionally targeted in shark culling operations meant to promote the safety of beachgoers and other tourists. This activity has not been proven to be effective in protecting swimmers and is generally frowned upon by conservationists and scientists. As a result of the risks that bull sharks face throughout their range, the species is considered near threatened with extinction. If population trends are not reversed, this species may be at greater risk.

Resources:

IUCN Red List

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