The attack occurred late last week, the victim was a 7-year-old boy

Aug 17, 2014 02:05 GMT  ·  By

Towards the end of last week, on Friday, a 7-year-old boy was attacked by a shark while swimming in Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, US. Based on the bite marks on his body, the creature behind the attack was identified as a bull shark.

Luckily, the boy, identified as Trent Trentacosta from Lakeview, Louisiana, did not suffer any major injuries and is expected to eventually make a full recovery, media reports say.

According to wildlife experts who have had the chance to take a look at the bite marks of the 7-year-old's body, the bull shark behind this attack measured about 5 feet (approximately 1.5 meters) in length.

Although shark attacks in lake are extremely rare, it appears that, contrary to what some might assume, they are not downright impossible. On the contrary, such incidents do happen every once in a while, and geography and shark anatomy are to blame.

Wildlife experts explain that this attack was made possible by the fact that Lake Pontchartrain in southeastern Louisiana is not a lake per se. Rivers and streams connect it to the open ocean, meaning that sharks and other marine creatures can reach it.

It is believed that the 7-year-old boy ended up being attacked by a bull shark and not by some other fierce marine predator due to the fact that this species has no trouble populating both saltwater and freshwater, Live Science informs.

This is because, thanks to a special gland that their bodies are equipped with, bull sharks can constantly alter the amount of salt in their bodies and make sure that it is in balance with the salt concentration of the waters they are swimming in at a given moment.

By the looks of it, the presence of several sharks belonging to this species has been documented in Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain over the years. However, bull shark attacks in this lake in the US are extremely few and far between, wildlife experts wish to stress.

This is yet to be confirmed, but specialists suspect that the 7-year-old boy was attacked by the bull shark not because the animal was looking to feed on him, but because the marine creature mistook his legs for some aquatic creature that it believed it could feed on.

Hence the fact that, despite the fact that the bull shark delivered some really nasty bites, Trent Trentacosta managed to escape the encounter without suffering any major injuries. Thus, wildlife experts say that, judging by evidence at hand, the animal swam away after realizing the boy was not its usual food.