Bull sharks in captivity.

[Birdsage]

Their website states that ‘The Oklahoma Aquarium's Shark Adventure is the only exhibit in the entire Western Hemisphere where bull sharks can be seen’.

Zootierliste lists…Acuario Poema del Mar in Las Palmas/Gran Canaria, Spain, no further info.

If Zootierliste is correct, then the Oklahoma Aquarium is not: the Canary Islands (as well as much of the Spanish mainland, for that matter) are in the Western Hemisphere (apparently, they must have meant “the Americas”).

 

[Local_Shark]

From a pure elasmobranch enthusiast perspective (I don’t necessarily want to call myself an expert but this is my field of study), bull shark captivity is about as interesting a topic as there is. They’re basically just massive and specialized reef sharks, evolutionarily speaking, which is possibly in large part why they do really really well in captivity (40 years for any shark species is wild). They’re extremely hardy and can thrive in absolutely horrible conditions in the wild, so human care is probably like living in paradise to them!

So that begs the question, why aren’t there more in captivity? I think quite frankly the answer falls to exhibit design and compatibility. They’re really aggressive, as I’m sure everyone here knows, and thus it may be difficult to exhibit them with other animals, which makes for a boring tank. But even in the wild that’s been known to be mitigated by the provision of constant sources of food. In the Bahamas the recorded number of bull shark attacks is absolutely minuscule, and they’ve even allegedly been seen resting on the ocean floor. A few different scientists have theorized that because the waters there are so rich in possible prey items, their aggression towards other living creatures (i.e. people) is decreased because they’re constantly satiated. This has been tested, apparently, at Okinawa - I read as a kid that their strategy to keeping bull sharks and tiger sharks in the same Shark Research Center exhibit was just feeding them both extremely well! So I suppose the way to handle it would be to feed them significantly more than their tank mates - many aquariums feed their sharks bi-weekly or even weekly, so you just don’t do that for bull sharks. Then theoretically you could exhibit them with other sharks, rays and fish with little to no problems. Perhaps the cost of food could become prohibitive but maybe you just have the one bull shark like SeaWorld Gulf Coast, lol.

Also, to add a little to the actual question of what aquaria have them, the National Aquarium in Abu Dhabi has juvenile bull sharks as a centerpiece of their freshwater exhibit. The tank is astonishing as it’s not even close to the biggest one in that facility. Wild stuff!

 

[Batto]

They’re really aggressive, as I’m sure everyone here knows, and thus it may be difficult to exhibit them with other animals, which makes for a boring tank.

Thank you for your post. Given that there are quite a number of animals with a potentially short fuse that are nevertheless quite commonly kept in (at times) attractive enclosures (like chimps, baboons, elephants, hippos etc.), I somehow doubt that aggression alone is such a limiting factor - even though cleaning the glass must be quite the exciting dive for the responsible staff...Personally, I would market the heck out of the aspect that this is truly one of the most dangerous sharks for humans and re-direct the generated increased public interest to teach the visitors more about the species.
On the other side, given the tendency of modern zoos & aquaria to go for easier, less bothersome options whenever possible, this could deter at least some facilities from showcasing them. The next time I'm at Zella-Mehlis, I will make sure to ask the staff about the practical aspects of keeping the species.

 

[Local_Shark]

Thank you for your post.
On the other side, given the tendency of modern zoos & aquaria to go for easier, less bothersome options whenever possible, this could deter at least some facilities from showcasing them. The next time I'm at Zella-Mehlis, I will make sure to ask the staff about the practical aspects of keeping the species.

Thank you for reading it! Sorry it was kind of an essay haha. This one may be just as much

Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head here. It’s not so much that they’re worried about the aggression as they’re worried about the inconvenience of constantly dealing with it. That was the issue with the Aquarium of the Pacific, my local aquarium - they exhibited a bull for about a year in 2006 and she was not compatible at all with any of the animals in the exhibit. She got on very poorly with the large sand tiger shark because she constantly tried to steal his food, and then eventually got bit by him rather than the other way around. It was such an inconvenience to even attempt to keep her that they eventually just sent her to the Oklahoma Aquarium, and I believe she may be still there. That place has very much turned into a sanctuary for bull sharks in America. I get the sneaking suspicion that the main reason theirs do so well is because they’re all just exhibited together in a fairly large exhibit, so it’s easy enough to manage their specialized needs. They also pretty much are only accompanied by nurse sharks, likely because it’s just easier to keep a very docile shark with a very aggressive one. Taking the easy way out is definitely the approach with a good few aquariums at the moment, it’s difficult to manage animals that are unusual or rare in captivity and a lot of the newer institutions or institutions with brand new remodels don’t seem to really want to have to do so early on. It’s understandable if a little unfortunate.

I will say, I completely agree with your opinion that it would be interesting and potentially very valuable to education to keep more bull sharks in captivity and help people understand their nature, and it certainly would be damn easy to market. Oklahoma does so and they’re very successful as far as I can tell. I intend on getting out there sometime soon, and I will report back with any findings that I have about exactly how they manage things there!