Bull Shark - Behavior

Behavior

Bull sharks are typically solitary hunters, but occasionally hunt in pairs. They often cruise through shallow waters. They can accelerate rapidly and can be highly aggressive, even possibly attacking a racehorse in the Brisbane River in the Australian state of Queensland. They are extremely territorial and attack animals that enter their territory. Since bull sharks often dwell in very shallow waters, they may be more dangerous to humans than any other species of shark, and along with the tiger shark, oceanic whitetip and great white shark, are among the four shark species most likely to attack humans.

One or several bull sharks may have been responsible for the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, which was the inspiration for Peter Benchley's novel Jaws. The speculation of bull sharks possibly being responsible is based on some attacks occurring in brackish and freshwater, as well as there being certain similarities in bite marks between bull and great white sharks.

The bull shark is responsible for attacks around the Sydney Harbour inlets. Most of these attacks were previously attributed to great whites. In India, bull sharks swim up the Ganges River and have attacked people. Many of these attacks have been attributed to the Ganges shark, Glyphis gangeticus, a critically endangered river shark species that is probably the only other shark in India able to survive in fresh water, although the grey nurse shark was also blamed during the sixties and seventies.