Bull Shark Adaptations
Bull Sharks can detect electricity in their prey to help them find their food. All of their prey have electricity so they can detect them. Bull Sharks can store salt in their body. This allows them to hunt for food in rivers. Instead, they only have 50% of the salt concentration in their blood. This makes them very special as they are able to switch from saltwater to freshwater very easily. The kidneys of the Bull Shark recycle the salt inside their body very efficiently with the help of glands located near the tail of the shark. Even with that process the body of the bull shark is still hypertonic to the surrounding freshwater. Hypertonic means to have increased pressure or tone. The bull shark produces 20 times more urine when swimming in salt water rather than freshwater. Bull sharks possess long pectoral fins that are used while searching for other prey. A pectoral fin is each of a pair of fins situated on either side just behind a fish's head. Bull Shark Anatomy Bull sharks can swim in fresh and saltwater. This makes it an Euryhaline fish. Its eyes are small, has a short snout, and its stomach is off-white and the top is gray which helps them blend into their surroundings like the ocean floor. The average bull shark is 7-11.5 feet long. The first dorsal fin is much longer and more pointed than the second dorsal fin. Female bull sharks are larger than males. Adult males are about 7 feet (2.1 m) long weighing 200 pounds (90 kg). Adult females are about 11.5 feet (3.5 m) long weighing 500 pounds (230 kg). Carcharhinus leucas is the real name for the bull shark. The area between the two of their dorsal fin is a small, raised ridge of skin that is called the interdorsal ridge. Bull sharks have 5 gill slits. Have 5 fins and a tail. They have the first dorsal fin, pectoral fin that looks paddle and helps it swim better, pelvic fin, anal fin, and a small second dorsal fin. Bull shark teeth are triangular, and very sharp. Bull sharks are viviparous. Meaning that there babies are not in eggs. Litters of 1 to 13 pups are common. Pups are about 28 inches (70 cm) long at birth. The mouths of river are where baby pups are found. Bull sharks are neutrally buoyant meaning that they don’t float to the top of the water but do not sink to the ocean floor. This is because their oily liver. Bull sharks have no bones, just cartilage which doesn’t weigh them down. Bull Shark Attacks Bull sharks are known of about at least 69 attacks that are unprovoked on humans around the world. This species of shark is known than more attacks than 69, it is considered by many expertise the shark is one of the three most dangerous sharks in the world. This shark is dangerous because it has attacked many people various times. The Bull shark is found in freshwater bodies of water, which is in a close proximity to human life, which is a greater threat than the Great White and Tiger shark. World regions including Central America, Mexico, India, east and west Africa, the Middle east, Southeast Asia, and South Pacific Island is where attacks are not as popular. The shark type is popular in tropical to subtropical places. The Bull shark is also not as easily identifiable as the white or tiger shark, so is likely responsible for a large percentage of attacks with unidentified culprits. The shark is harder to identify because it looks like a great white and tiger from the top, and it is identified by its stomach. Bull sharks occur in tropical to subtropical coastal water worldwide as well as numerous river systems and some freshwater lake which some place are common to swim in then. Bull Shark’s Diet and Predators They capture their prey by using the bump and bite technique. This is when they use their body weight to disorient or kill the prey. Using this advantage, it then eats the prey. Bull sharks eat bony fish, other sharks, turtles, birds, dolphins, land mammals, crustaceans, echinoderms (starfish, sand dollars, sea urchins, etc.), and stingrays in saltwater. Bull sharks can regurgitate some digested food ( they throw up) at a predator so it can escape. The regurgitated food distracts the predator. Freshwater bull sharks eat tarpon fish, crabs, squid, sea urchins, turtles, sawfish, birds, sloths, dogs, rats, cows, antelope, horses, and sometimes hippos. Sometimes bull sharks get eaten by tiger sharks, great white sharks, alligators, crocodiles, and also bull sharks. Bull Sharks Habitat/Social Life Female bull sharks live about 17 years while males only live about 13 years. Ten years into their life, bull sharks reach maturity. Maturity is the state or quality of being mature or when an animal is fully developed. Bull sharks are migrants and settle in warm shallow waters from about 30 to 50 meters deep. A migrant is an animal that migrates or does migration. Migration is the seasonal movement of animals from one region to another. A bull shark may move from Australia all the way to India. Bull sharks are one of the more social species. For example, bull sharks sometimes hunt in groups, unlike its cousin the Great White shark. Bull sharks are viviparous. This means that bull sharks give birth to live young, similar to mammals. Also, females have dominance over males and are active day and night. Liter may have 1-13 pups. These pups grow very slowly, which exposes them to predators for long amounts of time. To protect their children, the mother bear their young in shallow coastal waters. The larger predators can’t access these shallow waters so the baby sharks can grow up safely. Environmental changes affect where bull sharks go. During hurricane Katrina, it flooded so much that the bull sharks near the Louisiana coast moved into Lake Pontchartrain. They did this most likely because of the shortage of food. 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