#sharkfacts #bullsharksighting #unusualanimalencounters
Did you know that the bull shark, a super aggressive species 🦈, has been discovered as far as Alton, Illinois, which is upstream from St. Louis, Missouri? These sharks can grow up to a whopping 13 feet long! 😱 It’s incredible to think about these powerful creatures making their way so far upstream. It just goes to show how adaptable and resilient they are! Have you ever seen a bull shark in the wild? Let us know in the comments below! 🌊🐟
Bull sharks scared the shit out of me as a kid when I first read about them. The idea that a shark can just be “anywhere” (6-year-old me wasn’t familiar with the notion that they still needed certain climates to live in) was extremely terrifying.
Maybe they’ll eat the asian carp.
There have been unconfirmed, I think, reports of bull sharks as far north as Minnesota. Theoretically they could make it into the Great Lakes, but it’d be very difficult. I recall reading a while back about how bull sharks were tagged in Lake Nicaragua and the researchers were confused about how they would find them out in the ocean. Apparently they could jump a levee somewhere and transfer fairly freely into the different water systems. They’re really an interesting animal.
I don’t have a map picture handy, but that distance is roughly half the total “height” of America. The “height” being the length from the Gulf to Canada, along the Mississippi river.
And climate change is extending their grounds.
Even a literal shark won’t stop in St. Louis
In Australia, there’s a bunch of them that live in a lake on a golf course. They washed in with a flood and were trapped when the waters receded
I live a town over from Alton it’s true. Every time I go to brown bag bistro there’s 1 or 2 bull sharks just hanging around eating Rueben’s and drinking 60 min IPAs
Certainly a byproduct of sharknados.
What is scary is that if they are in the Mississippi, they could also be in any of its tributaries.
Idk I bet they’d like belly rubs
These jabronis are in the rivers in my area “Florida”. Seeing a bull shark in the dark waters is really erie.
No way. Alton? This is brilliant
You could be swimming in a river 2000 miles from the ocean and become lunch to one of these.
[try Wisconsin](https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/ftlgeneral_668033/)
Also far up rivers in Africa and Australia!
Ocean is too trashed to live in lol
There is a reason they are called Zambezi Sharks in South Africa…
Should have included they they can breathe both fresh and salt water. Which is how they can travel up river..
They used to be in the great lakes too until we started damming up the Mississippi River
What’s stopping them from reaching the Great Lakes?
It’s true, I live in Missouri. I was sitting there the other day and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a shark. I go back to what I’m doing. Few minutes go by and I thought I saw it again. So I turn my head and start looking. I see it, it’s definitely a shark.
And that’s when I turned and said mom, do you mind not vacuuming right now I’m trying to play video games.
It has a completely flat back of head
Reminds of the movie Red Water, with Lou Diamond Phillips
Bull sharks also have one of the highest amounts of testosterone if not the highest.
The Amazon is much longer and has far less human intervention(dams). These things cause all kinds of problems.
Some years ago a few were caught in the Potomac not far from Mt. Vernon.
I call bull shark.
I have relatives in STL and we would go to Fast Eddie’s Bon Aire in Alton when visiting. One time, a couple of Bull Sharks got into it with some bikers. They ran to the river when the cops showed up. Good thing I was tripping balls on shrooms..