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The Bull Shark (A predator that lurks in rivers and seas)
=Interesting creature=
By Shervin Belgrave
Kaieteur News – Many persons believe that shark attacks can only occur in salt water, but the species that inspired the movie, Jaws does not only lurk in oceans exclusively, but also in fresh water rivers and lakes.
Bull sharks in the ocean
There are over 500 species of sharks that inhabit the world’s oceans. This week’s interesting creature is the Bull Shark; a species that can live in both fresh and salt water. It is the only shark that has the ability to do this. All other species of sharks including the most feared Great White, cannot survive in fresh water because it dilutes the salt content in their bodies.
In order to survive, sharks must retain salt in their body, without it their cells can rupture and cause bloating and death.
Bull Sharks, however, has the unique ability to retain and balance its salt levels while swimming in fresh and brackish waters. This is possible because Bull Sharks’ liver can respond to the salinity (amount of salt in water) of its environment by flushing water through its system to maintain homeostasis (maintaining equal balance between two independent elements). They do this by urinating a lot more when they’re in freshwater than in saltwater, but this is not why we should fear them.
Bull Sharks are fairly large but not as big as it saltwater cousin the Great White. Nevertheless, it is rated as the most aggressive shark on the planet, making it multiple times more dangerous than the Great White.
While the movie, Jaws portrayed the Great White as a living nightmare, it was really Bull Sharks that inspired the making of the film as a result of their attacks on humans at the Jersey (US state) Shore area in 1916.
Swimmers and divers must not only be on the lookout for these bad boys when exploring the shallow depths of the seas, but also rivers and lakes close to home. That is because they have a low tolerance for provocation and are responsible for the majority of near shore shark attacks.
There is no reported sighting of a Bull Shark in Guyana’s rivers, but they do thrive in the Amazon River and have been responsible for attacks in neighbouring Brazil, and were spotted in the rivers of Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia and in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela.
Bull Sharks are large and stout, with females being larger than males. Baby Bull Sharks are three feet long while adult males can be around seven or eight feet long. Females can grow to more up to 11 feet or even more.
These creatures can weigh as much as 290 pounds and a pregnant female can be as heavy as 990 pounds.
Its bight force is also tremendous and might very well be the most powerful among cartilaginous fishes measuring up to 5,914 newtons or 1,330 lbf.
The Bull Shark’s diet consists mainly of bony fish, stingrays and small sharks, including other Bull Sharks.
Their diet can also include turtles, birds, dolphins, terrestrial mammals, crustaceans, and echinoderms.
They love hunting in murky waters where it is harder for the prey to see them coming. Bull Sharks have been known to use the bump-and-bite technique to attack their prey- meaning that after the first initial contact, they continue to bite and tackle prey until the prey is unable to flee.
These animals are normally solitary hunters but can briefly pair with another Bull Shark to make hunting and tricking a prey easier.
Sharks in general are opportunistic feeders and the Bull Shark is no exception to this, so if you swim idly around one of them and it is hungry, you might very well become prey.
Sources of information: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_shark) (https://www.sharkguardian.org/post/bull-shark) (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/shark-attack-threats-bull-sharks-location)
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