the piss drinking, animal killing, bear grylls is back…
Following the same pattern as Shaq does Shark Week, Bear versus Shark really is just a celebrity show with very little content. If you want to learn about sharks go ahead and skip it.
Episode Description
Putting his wits and survival skills to the test, adventurer bear Grylls faces off with the oceans Apex predator. He goes chumming from a helicopter, diving into a feeding frenzy, and posing as human bait.
Like all Bear Grylls shows, Bear versus Shark is sensationalist, and purposely puts him into semi dangerous situations. In essence he is the clickbait of the television world.
Why is he spear fishing? Because reasons.
Why is he eating a raw fish? Because science!
Why is he doing a back flip from a helicopter? Lol because danger and cool.
While there is certainly more science than in Shaq does Shark Week… It still is not a scientific show or a documentary. It’s a semi celebrity in a shark themed show meant to bait you into watching.
Child Safe
This show also probably is not appropriate for the most sensitive children… A man eating a just caught and killed pretty fish raw isn’t the best image. But overall the show is pretty appropriate for everyone.
Sharks Featured
There is very little information on any of the shark species featured in Bear vs Shark… so below you’ll find a brief intro and a link so you can actually go and learn about sharks.
The Hammerhead Shark
The hammerhead sharks are a group of sharks in the family Sphyrnidae, so named for the unusual and distinctive structure of their heads, which are flattened and laterally extended into a “hammer” shape called a cephalofoil. Most hammerhead species are placed in the genus Sphyrna, while the winghead shark is placed in its own genus, Eusphyra. Many, but not necessarily mutually exclusive, functions have been proposed for the cephalofoil, including sensory reception, manoeuvering, and prey manipulation. Hammerheads are found worldwide in warmer waters along coastlines and continental shelves. Unlike most sharks, hammerheads usually swim in schools during the day, becoming solitary hunters at night. Some of these schools can be found near Malpelo Island in Colombia, Cocos Island off Costa Rica, and near Molokai in Hawaii. Large schools are also seen in the waters off southern and eastern Africa.
Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammerhead_shark
The Nurse Shark
The nurse shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) is an elasmobranch fish within the family Ginglymostomatidae. They are directly targeted in some fisheries and considered as bycatch in others. The conservation status of the nurse shark is globally assessed as being data deficient in the IUCN List of Threatened Species owing to the lack of information across its range in the eastern Pacific Ocean and eastern Atlantic Ocean.[2] They are considered to be a species of least concern in the United States and in The Bahamas, but considered to be near threatened in the western Atlantic Ocean because of their vulnerable status in South America and reported threats throughout many areas of Central America and the Caribbean
Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_shark
The Tiger Shark
The tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier[3]) is a species of requiem shark and the only extant member of the genus Galeocerdo. It is a large macropredator, capable of attaining a length over 5 m (16 ft 5 in).[4] Populations are found in many tropical and temperate waters, especially around central Pacific islands. Its name derives from the dark stripes down its body, which resemble a tiger’s pattern but fade as the shark matures.[5]
The tiger shark is a solitary, mostly nocturnal hunter. It is notable for having the widest food spectrum of all sharks, with a range of prey that includes crustaceans, fish, seals, birds, squid, turtles, sea snakes, dolphins, and even other smaller sharks. It also has a reputation as a “garbage eater”,[5] consuming a variety of inedible, man-made objects that linger in its stomach. Though apex predators, tiger sharks are sometimes taken by groups of killer whales.[6] It is considered a near threatened species due to finning and fishing by humans.[2]
The tiger shark is second only to the great white in recorded fatal attacks on humans.[7]
Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_shark
And the Bull shark
The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), also known as the Zambezi shark (informally “zambi”) in Africa, and Lake Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is a requiem shark commonly found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers. The bull shark is known for its aggressive nature, predilection for warm shallow water, and presence in brackish and freshwater systems including estuaries and rivers.
Bull sharks can thrive in both salt and fresh water and can travel far up rivers. They have been known to travel up the Mississippi River as far as Alton, Illinois,[3] about 700 miles (1100 km) from the ocean. However, few freshwater human-shark interactions have been recorded. Larger-sized bull sharks are probably responsible for the majority of near-shore shark attacks, including many bites attributed to other species.[4]
Unlike the river sharks of the genus Glyphis, bull sharks are not true freshwater sharks despite their ability to survive in freshwater habitats
Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bull_shark