The Sharks of the Rivers

Sharks cause much fear from people. The word shark is synonymous with a killer. Perhaps this reputation isn't completely unfounded but perhaps it is a little exaggerated. Man's fear of sharks really hasn't been around that long, only a century. If I may point out that crocodiles don't have such a strong reputation for killing people yet they kill more people a year than sharks do. That could be because there hasn't been a killer crocodile blockbuster movie made and also because most people that conflict with crocodylians are people living in third world countries. More Americans conflict with sharks than with crocodiles. One of these days I will write on some of my favorite animals, the crocodylians.
Right now I will be writing on a fascinating specie of shark Charcharhinus leucas also known as the bull shark.
The bull shark is found in all warm and shallow seas around the world and they can even spend much of their life in a freshwater environment. They will swim up-rivers and can potential spend their entire lives in a river or lake. Estuaries and semi-saline waters are often used as nurseries for the bull shark. This is a very unique ability for a shark and they have been found remarkable distances from the ocean. The farthest up river that they have been found was 2,500 miles up the Amazon river! One that hits a little closer to home is that a bull shark was accidentally caught by commercial fishermen in the Mississippi river in Illinois, just a few miles north of St. Louis, Missouri. That was 1,750 miles from the Gulf of Mexico! You can read more about this interesting catch here. This cannot happen anymore, sadly, for dams have been built along the river causing passage that far up the Mississippi impossible for a shark.
In case you haven't noticed, that the places that the bull shark likes to swim is also where people like to swim.They are also extremely territorial and aggressive. This has caused many attacks and the bull shark had been labelled the third most dangerous shark to humans. They are probably responsible for more attacks than what has been attributed to them due to misidentification. The bull shark's range also matches with the most dangerous and second most dangerous sharks, the great white and tiger sharks, and they look similar to both. This encourages misidentification.
The bull shark was also probably one of the sharks involved with the 1916 New Jersey sharks attacks. This event was the inspiration for the movie Jaws and for good reason. Within two weeks, four people died due to a shark attack and one was injured. My theory is that there were only two sharks involved, one great white shark and a bull shark. The whole story of the attacks sounds like something from a fiction story and is quite fascinating.
Bull sharks can get pretty big reaching a length of 13 feet and weighing as much as 500 lbs. The females are usually larger than males.
The bull shark is an opportunistic feeder, eating whatever it can whenever it can. They will even eat smaller member of their own species. Sometimes they will eat bright pieces of litter such as cans and coins. This can cause hazards to the shark so don't litter, even if you live in Montana, because you might hurt a shark... Bull sharks use a unique killing method to bring down their prey. They will circle their prey and bump it with their nose which disorients their prey and can even kill their prey.
Their predators are naturally only what is bigger than they are. Great white sharks and tiger sharks are what they mainly need to be afraid of. Man often kills bull sharks as well. Due to their affinity to fresh-water and shallow seas, they will come in conflict with a crocodile with an affinity for salt-water. As you can see, the bull shark is on the losing side of the bargain.

Sharks are amazing creatures. There is an incredible variety of sharks throughout the world and the bull shark is one of them. The bull shark is definitely a fascinating creature.