Are Bull Sharks Aggressive: Do They Attack People On Purpose?

If you’re wondering whether bull sharks are aggressive sharks, or aggressive to humans, or if they attack people on purpose, this article will answer your questions. Your reason for asking questions about bull sharks may be because you live where sharks are found off the beach in places like Miami Beach, or because you’d like to scuba dive with sharks. Which is why it’s important to know whether bull sharks are aggressive to humans and if they attack people.

Bull sharks are extremely aggressive animals and are known to attack people, but not on purpose. Bull sharks are dangerous because they are aggressive creatures and because they migrate up rivers, as they can live in freshwater and salt water alike, which brings them into close contact with people.

The best way to do more diving is to book yourself on a scuba diving liveaboard. You can check the latest and best deals on liveaboards using the following window:

Please read to the end of this article to discover which other sharks you need to be careful around when scuba diving with sharks.

But before you do, you may want to watch the following video of a bull shark in the backyard of a homeowner in Bonita, Florida in the Gulf of Mexico.

Before you read on, you may also like to find out if the Gulf of Mexico has great white sharks too. You may be surprised at what you discover, but excited too if you love sharks like I do. You may also want to watch the last video in this article that shows Scientist Eric Ritter swimming with bull sharks. I’m not sure I’d do what he does.

Context to bull shark aggression vs human aggressive behaviour

Before I continue with my article about whether bull sharks are aggressive, I wanted to explain a misconception people have about animals and aggressive behaviour, especially when it comes to sharks like the bull shark.

Many people humanise the behaviour of aggression in animals, as if it is somehow bad. Aggression is generally not an acceptable behaviour between fellow humans, and is quite rightly perceived in a negative way, and to make things worse, humans have even invented this bizarre behaviour of passive aggression too.

If you now turn to look at animal behaviour, which in this context is bull shark aggression, you need to step back in order to understand why a bull shark needs to be aggressive.

As humans, we have lost that link with nature and the need to hunt to survive, but wild animals have to hunt in order to survive. People are able to go to local stores to buy groceries to eat at home, or can visit the local takeaway or can eat out at a restaurant. Whereas animals in the wild don’t have any of these luxuries.

As a result, animals that are carnivores, which includes bull sharks, have retained the necessity to hunt and kill other animals in order to survive. Hunting is correctly perceived as aggressive behaviour (which is even the case when humans go hunting), but creatures such as bull sharks have to hunt aggressively in terms of speed and ferocity, otherwise they simply would never eat.

However, it is sometimes unfortunate that humans get in the way of the feeding habits of bull sharks. People should always bear in mind that it is humans who are visiting where sharks live, not the other way around. But it’s the fact that bull sharks can live in salty oceans and in freshwater rivers that create more problems for humans than almost any other shark. This is mostly why they have the reputation they do.

In respect of visiting where animals live, this is no different to visiting an African savanna. You would still need to be careful when walking near a pride of lions, especially hungry lions, which like sharks are also very aggressive carnivorous hunters.

But I’d also argue that all animals that are carnivores are aggressive. But also, it’s not just carnivores that are aggressive in the wild, as herbivores also need to be aggressive for survival. For example, one of the most dangerous herbivores in Africa is the hippopotamus (See video below where you find a bull shark and hippos in the same body of water).

Are bull sharks more aggressive than great white sharks?

Bull sharks are no more aggressive than great white sharks when hunting, although bull sharks are one of the most aggressive animals on the planet. Great white sharks are very aggressive sharks and account for more attacks and human deaths, but it’s argued that bull sharks are even more aggressive.

What makes bull sharks aggressive?

It is their need to hunt for survival that make bull sharks aggressive, as hunting is an aggressive behaviour, and is no different to other shark species or other carnivores that must hunt to survive in the wild.

It has been argued that bull sharks have high levels of testosterone, which is what makes bull sharks so aggressive. In fact it has been claimed that bull sharks have the highest levels of testosterone of any living animal, which makes them very dangerous.

However, this isn’t necessarily true when you read this myth-busting article about bull shark testosterone.

How aggressive are bull sharks?

Bull sharks are as aggressive as they need to be in order to hunt their prey. Bull sharks are carnivores, which means they have to hunt and kill other wild animals and need to be aggressive hunters in order to survive in the wild.

Are bull sharks bad?

Bull sharks are not bad, but because they are sharks and are creatures that many people fear, they are labelled as bad. Bull sharks are simply wild animals that hunt to eat and survive.

The sad part is that bull sharks are more threatened by humans than we are by them due to habitat pollution.

Are bull sharks dangerous?

Bull sharks are dangerous because they are aggressive creatures and because they migrate up rivers, as they can live in freshwater and salt water alike. It’s because they live in shallow brackish coastal waters that make them dangerous, as there’s a greater chance to come in contact with people.

One reason why bull sharks are so dangerous is down to how unpredictable they can be. This is born out in the next video from the Discovery Channel. I apologise for the terrible images in this video, but it doesn’t stop you from seeing what happens. Bear in mind this is a shark behavioural specialist too.

Can a bull shark kill a human?

There is no doubt that a bull shark can and do kill humans, especially when you consider the size of bull sharks, which can grow to 3.3 metres (11 feet) in length. But even if a bull shark’s intention is not to eat the person, and is only making an exploratory bite, bull shark bites can of themselves be fatal if the person has an artery severed when bitten.

Has a bull shark ever killed anyone?

Unfortunately bull sharks have killed people, as there’s been a total of 117 confirmed unprovoked attacks on humans by bull sharks around the world, 25 of which have been fatal. Unprovoked bull shark attacks is third to 52 fatal attacks by great white sharks and 34 fatal attacks by tiger sharks.

Are bull sharks friendly to humans?

Bull sharks are not particularly friendly to humans and can be aggressive instead, particularly when provoked. The most likely provocation is from spearfishermen, which often happens in waters where bull sharks live and they can be opportunistic feeders and will go for an easy meal.

Here’s an example of how bull sharks will take the opportunity to steal a fish from a spearfisherman’s spear.

How deadly is a bull shark?

The bull shark is third on the list of unprovoked shark attacks after great white sharks at the top and tigers sharks in second place. There has been 25 unprovoked fatalities by bull sharks from a total of 117 unprovoked attacks on people.

Having said that, shark attacks are rare and are most often down to mistaken identity, since attacks happen on swimmers in shallow silty water where the bull sharks have a hard time seeing its prey clearly.

Is it safe to swim with bull sharks?

It is safe to swim with bull sharks and divers do not need to worry about scuba diving with them. Having said that, divers do need to be careful not to provoke an attack by a bull shark, as they can be highly aggressive when provoked.

You may also want to watch the last video in this article that shows Scientist Eric Ritter swimming with bull sharks.

What do bull sharks eat?

Bull sharks will eat almost anything and this includes other sharks, rays, fish, shellfish, crabs, turtles, birds and dolphins. Bull sharks are opportunistic feeders and can be found in the ocean and in rivers.

Here is a bull shark in a river with hippos, not the two animals you’d expect to see side-by-side in the same body of water.

Another shark that can be very aggressive and bold is the oceanic whitetip shark. Oceanic whitetip sharks are extremely curious and often when they are around scuba divers they look for openings or weaknesses. Two articles you may like to read about these aggressive sharks include Elphinstone Reef Shark Attack and Brothers Shark Attack: Oceanic Whitetip Shark Attacks Diver.

In this second article, a scuba diver is filmed being attacked by an oceanic whitetip shark. But please be aware that attacks like this are still extremely rare. Included in the article are tips for when diving with sharks and how to stay safe too, plus an explanation about how the diver who was attacked could have avoided the attack.

Before you go, you may be as fascinated as I was when I found out what fish eat sharks. In this article there are three amazing videos of other fish eating sharks whole: What Fish Can Eat Sharks, for me it’s the first video I was most amazed at.

Finally, a video of a scientist who swims with bull sharks he’s just fed. Not something I would to.

I hope you enjoyed this page about are bull sharks aggressive

If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about are bull sharks aggressive), please comment below with your questions.

Please share your experiences, plus dive sites, resorts and liveaboards you recommend. Share the time of year of your trip together with what you saw, the visibility, currents and dive operator, as this will help others who read this page.

There will also be many more pages and articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkelling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.

Have fun and be safe!

Russell Bowyer

Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.