Built like the name
Stocky, blunt-nosed and heavy in the shoulder, the bull shark is a coastal hunter of warm seas worldwide, and the one big shark whose body can switch between salt and fresh water. Bull sharks breed in estuaries and river mouths and the young may spend years upstream, safe from larger sharks.
On Mexico's Caribbean coast, pregnant females gather in the shallows each winter, which has made the area one of the few places divers can meet the species in clear water.
Status
The IUCN moved the bull shark to Vulnerable in 2020. Its coastal habits put it in the path of inshore fisheries and of the development of the mangroves and estuaries it breeds in.