The truth about Bull sharks
The bull shark is one of the most common species of large sharks around the world.
Despite being mainly a marine species, it is famous for its preference for fresh water and can often be found in rivers, estuaries and even in some lakes in Central America. The bull shark has also been found about 3,000 kilometers upstream, in rivers such as the Amazon and the Mississippi.
Pregnant bull sharks need warm water to give birth and they chose que Caribbean to do it. It’s when the bull shark season takes place in Cancun. If you’re planning on going to dive with sharks in Cancun, you should know the Basic information about these powerful animals.
5 things you didn’t know about Bull sharks
1. Bull sharks have one of the strongest bites
In previous years, scientiest compared the bites of different shark species, and found that an adult bull shark can close their mouth with 6000 Newtons of force (humans bite with a 900-1300 Newtons). This shark devolved a powerful bite maybe because of its diet: they eat oysters, turtles and even other sharks!
2. They can live in fresh water
Most aquatic organisms can’t regulate the ammount of salt that they need to survive, this is why many species only lives in salty or fresh water. Bull Sharks have volved some tricks to cope with this: they can regulate the ammount of salt that their kidneys remove from their bodies and also use their rectal glands and liver to mantain a proper balance between salt and water. This is why this shark specie can live in both enviroments!
3. There’s a golf course in Australia infested with bull sharks
In a Golf Club located in Brisbane, the course is next to Logan River, with have flooded several times. At some point, baby bull sharks swept into the brackish and where trapped when the lake receded. According to the club’s website, there are between 6 and 12 sharks, the biggest is 9 feet long and they might be breeding.
4. They can live in captivity
Unlike the Great White that no one has been able to keep alive in captivity longer than 6 months, Bull sharks can live well in in aquariums for at least 25 years or more.
5. Is one of the 3 species that bite humans
Shark attacks to humans are very rare, but there are 3 species commonly implicated in attacks to human. The most commonly implicated in documented cases are, in order: white shark, tiger shark and bull shark, but there’s an explanation. Bull sharks come to tropical water to give birth, and in áreas where they can’t see well, they can mistase humans for other prey.