92 Sharks: The Animal Answer Guide1937, two commercial fishermen in Alton, Illinois, were surprised to find a
1.5-m-long (5-ft) Bull Shark in a trap baited with chicken guts. Alton lies
about 1,160 river miles (1,850 km) from the mouth of the Mississippi and
15 miles (24 km) north of St. Louis, near where the Mississippi, Illinois,
and Missouri rivers come together. Alton declares itself “the most haunted
city in America” because of the many ghosts that are claimed to live there
(including one Bull Shark?). Today, a shark trying to get to Alton would
have to traverse a lock and dam built in 1953, so it’s unlikely any have made
the trip since then (three juvenile Bull Sharks reportedly caught in Wis-
consin and Minnesota in 2006 were part of an April Fools hoax).
Bull Sharks have also been found as far as 4,200 km (2,610 miles) up
the Amazon, and they regularly traverse the 175-km-long (105-mile) Rio
San Juan of Nicaragua, moving between the Caribbean Sea and Lake Nic-
aragua, where they are called Lake Nicaragua sharks. They also move up
other rivers in Mexico, and Central and South America. Bull Sharks, alongThe Alton, Illinois, Bull Shark. In
1937 , something was tearing up
the wooden fish traps set by these
two fishermen, Herbert Cope and
Dudge Collins, so they built a large
trap out of wire mesh and baited it
with chicken guts. To their surprise,
the culprit was a 1. 5 -m ( 5 -ft), 38 -kg
( 84 -lb) Bull Shark. The shark would
have traveled a minimum of 1 , 160
river miles from the mouth of the
Mississippi to get to Alton. Photo by
Ralph Manns
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