File:Carcharhinus_leucas_TPWD.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Carcharhinus leucas
Sign in to saveAlso known as Bull shark, Zambezi shark, Nicaragua shark, Bolivian shark
species of fish
OverviewAI-generated
Carcharhinus leucas, commonly known as the bull shark, is a species within the genus Carcharhinus. It belongs to the family Carcharhinidae, order Carcharhiniformes, class Elasmobranchii, phylum Chordata, and kingdom Animalia. The taxon is accepted in current classification systems. Its range includes Brazil, Salvaterra, and New Guinea. The species inhabits marine, brackish, and freshwater environments.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the bull shark as Vulnerable, an assessment made in 2021. The species has a maximum longevity of 32 years in the wild. Records indicate occurrences in the United States and Mexico, held by institutions such as USNM and MHN-UABCS. The taxon name is Carcharhinus leucas, with the authority attributed to (Valenciennes, 1839).
Synthesized by Vinony from 39 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, GBIF, IUCN Red List, Gbif Occ, Encyclopedia of Life, WoRMS, iDigBio, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Species
Vulnerablebull shark
Carcharhinus leucas
SPECIES
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumChordata
- ClassElasmobranchii
- OrderCarcharhiniformes
- FamilyCarcharhinidae
Maximum longevity: 32 years (wild)
via GBIF · IUCN
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 1,473
- With media
- 48
- Family
- Carcharhinidae
- Collections
- USNM, MHN-UABCS
- Recorded in
- United States, Mexico
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Carcharhinus
- Image
- 202410 Bull Shark.svg
Show 9 more facts
- taxon rank
- species
- IUCN conservation status
- Vulnerable
- Commons category
- Carcharhinus leucas
- taxon name
- Carcharhinus leucas
- taxon common name
- Bullenhai
- start time
- 11000000-0
- taxon range
- New Guinea
- short name
- C. leucas
- external data available at URL
- www.gbif.org/dataset/abf8082d-c179-4cb2-acc4-3cdef16c4341
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~20 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), also known as the Zambezi shark (informally zambi) in Africa and Lake Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is a species of requiem shark commonly found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers. It is known for its aggressive nature, and presence mainly in warm, shallow brackish and freshwater systems including estuaries and (usually) lower reaches of rivers. Their aggressive nature has led to ongoing shark-culling efforts near beaches to protect beachgoers, which is one of the causes of bull shark populations continuing to decrease. Bull sharks are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
Bull sharks are euryhaline and can thrive in both salt and fresh water. They are known to travel far up rivers, and have been known to travel up the Mississippi River as far as Alton, Illinois, about 1,100 kilometres (700 mi) from the ocean, but few freshwater interactions with humans have been recorded. Larger-sized bull sharks are responsible for a large part of nearshore shark attacks, and may be responsible for many attacks involving unidentified species.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Carcharhinus leucas” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.