20 Bull Sharks Spotted Along Brisbane River, Australian Man Captures Video [WATCH]

Bull sharks were spotted by an Australian man along a river in the heart of Brisbane city, capital of Queensland, Australia.

The man captured the bizarre sighting and counted that there were 20 bull sharks as he has observed from his balcony.

Brisbane River Bull Sharks

(Photo : Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
Bull sharks circle a bait box during a shark dive off the coast of Jupiter, Florida on February 12, 2022.

In a social media post, Paulo Baleeiro, a biologist studying at the University of Queensland, posted the video showing the swimming marine animals on what appears to be bull sharks.

Baleeiro told Yahoo News Australia that he had never seen a shark along the Brisbane River prior to the Sunday, January 29, sighting.

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Are Bull Sharks Dangerous?

Bull sharks are the most dangerous sharks in the world, as cited by the Australia Wide First Aid, a Brisbane based national-accredited first aid training provider.

The threat posed by these ferocious predators stems from the fact that they are not only an aggressive shark species but also tend to hunt in bodies of water where people often swim like rivers, lakes, and along tropical shorelines.

A bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) has an average lifespan of 16 years in its natural habitat in the wild.

They can grow between 7 to 11.5 feet and weigh from 200 to 500 pounds.

In terms of their distribution, bull sharks can be found worldwide, mostly in shallow and warm ocean waters.

However, the said species of shark have been known also to reside in freshwater systems.

While humans are not of a bull shark's normal diet, they will eat almost anything, ranging from fish, dolphins, to sea turtles, even as well as other shark species.

C. leucas is also a flexible marine predator since it can hunt both during daytime and evening hours.

Bull Shark Habitat

As mentioned earlier, the presence of bull sharks is widespread since they can be found in coastal waters around the globe.

In the US, they are frequently found in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Wildlife Foundation (NWF).

Their presence has been reported in the Mississippi River and Amazon Rivers.

Unlike other sharks, bull sharks can survive in freshwater for a prolonged period of time.

A shark's survivability also depends on the amount of salt they retain in their bodies.

However, bull sharks are different since they have developed special adaptations, particularly their kidney function and special glands near their tails, which help them keep salt inside their bodies even when in freshwater, the NWF explained.

Until now, scientists are still interested in studying bull sharks to determine how they developed such "unusual ability," the foundation says.

Bull Shark Attacks

In previous years, bull shark attacks have occurred in different parts of the world, in addition to encounters involving great white sharks.

In 2007, cases of bull shark attacks were reported victimizing humans who dwell even on waist-deep rivers in India.

In 2022, a bull shark killed a US cruise ship passenger during a snorkeling activity near the Bahamas, according to local authorities, as cited by the BBC.

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