The bull shark its name not only because of its appearance, but because of its behavior. These are large and stocky sharks, with a wide flat muzzle and unpredictable, aggressive character. Females are larger than males. The average female of the bull sharks has a length of about 2.4 m and weighs 130 kg, and the males on average reach 2.25 m in length and the weight of 95 kg. The largest recorded gray bull shark had a body length of about 4 m. The shark-bull bite is 5,914 Newtons, which is the highest among fish of this size.
Bull sharks are able to perform osmoregulation, which means that they can control their internal osmotic pressure when the salinity of the water changes. Bull sharks give birth to four to ten sharks in fresh water. Over time, sharks acquire tolerance to the salinity of water. Newborns or young sharks are usually found in fresh water, and older ones tend to live in salt water. However, they can live their whole life in fresh water. An adult life in fresh water is not ideal, since most of the food of sharks lives in the sea.
Bull sharks basically eat different bony fish and small sharks, including their relatives. Like opportunistic predators, they also eat terrestrial mammals, birds, turtles, crustaceans, echinoderms and dolphins. They use a strike and bite strategy to attack prey, usually hunting in muddy water. Dummy sharks, as a rule, are single hunters, although they are able to hunt in pairs in order to deceive the victim. Although blunt sharks hunt in muddy water, they can see colors and use it to search for prey. Sharks are hunted both during the day and at night.
Mature bull sharks mate at the end of summer or early autumn. They need about 10 years to reach puberty. In the ritual of mating, the male bites the female’s tail until it turns upside down, allowing him to copulate. Mature females often show signs of bites and scratches.
Bull sharks are aggressive predators at the top of the food chain in their ecosystem, so their main threat is the person. However, they can be attacked by large white sharks, tiger sharks and crocodiles. The average life span of a bull shark is 16 years.
