Speaking of the Amazon River in South America, there must be few people who are unaware, as a precious natural treasure house on the earth, the Amazon River is not only fascinating to explore, but also lives on this beautiful river, there are countless mysterious and dangerous creatures.
The Amazon River has thus been called "a paradise for animals and a forbidden area for mankind." In this issue of the Ziya Children's Fun Knowledge Bureau, let's walk into the Amazon River together, talk about several true "overlords" that survive here, and explore this vast river together.
The first is the Paku piranha, if you are not an expert in fish, you may wonder what kind of fish it is, but as a "large close relative" of piranhas, paku piranhas are famous on the Amazon River.
Unlike ordinary piranhas, the teeth of paku piranhas look almost the same as those of humans, taking into account the sharpness unique to piranha teeth and the neatness of human teeth, but whenever they want to be bitten by paku piranhas, they have to be missing a few pieces of meat.
As an omnivorous fish, paku piranhas not only eat fruits that fall into rivers and insects that fly over the water, but also often prey on other fish.
When humans need to wade in the water, it will also become the "dish" of paku piranhas. Since the Paku piranha is a fish that relies on the sense of smell to prey on.
Therefore, it is particularly sensitive to the smell of corrosive meat in the river. Coincidentally, male reproductive organs happen to be able to emit a similar odor.
So when paku piranhas "smell" this smell, they often attack the man's crotch. Due to the unique physiological characteristics of paku piranhas, this fish is also known as "egg-cutting fish".
In 2011, two men were unfortunately bitten in the crotch by a Paku piranha, and the two men eventually lost their lives due to untimely medical delivery.
News such as this has been reported that if you are bitten by an ordinary piranha, you may have a few pieces of meat on your body, but if you are bitten by a Paku piranha, you will most likely lose your life.
Piranhas have always been the "overlords" of the Amazon River because of their ferocious personality, but the most wonderful thing about nature lies in the food chain chain one after another.
Although piranhas are fierce, on the Amazon River, there is a fierce fish that specializes in piranhas, and its name is called giant water wolf's toothfish.
As a fish specializing in hunting piranhas, the size of the giant water wolf tooth fish is very large among the fish, according to the measurements of fish experts, in the giant water wolf tooth fish caught by humans, the longest fish can reach one meter and two meters long.
Because of its unique physiological structure, the stomach capacity of the giant water wolf tooth fish is very amazing, and it can swallow up to half its length into the stomach.
The shape of the giant water wolf tooth fish is very peculiar, their upper and lower jaw teeth look like two wolf teeth, not only look very sharp, but also can reach 15 centimeters.
Sharp teeth are not only a "good helper" for the giant water wolf tooth fish to fight, but also can easily pierce the soft abdomen of the piranha, with the fierce habits and strong aggression of the giant water wolf tooth fish, the giant water wolf tooth fish firmly occupies its own position on the Amazon River.
The parasitic catfish is a slender and long small fish, the body looks translucent, the organs inside can be seen clearly at a glance, and the fish is not covered with scales, and the longest will not exceed 10 mm.
At a glance, the parasitic catfish is similar to the small silver fish we usually eat, but this seemingly non-aggressive fish is a notorious parasitic fish on the Amazon River.
As the world's smallest vertebrate, the parasitic catfish does not have sharp teeth like paku piranhas, nor do it have two teeth like the jaws of the giant wolftooth fish.
The only thing that can barely be called a "weapon" may be the rows of small spikes that parasitic gills grow on the gill lid. When the parasitic catfish attacks, it uses small spikes on its gill cover.
A small bite on the favorite host, because of its small size, so when the host has a wound on the body, the parasitic catfish will directly drill into the host's body along the wound.
When it enters the host's body, the parasitic catfish will feed on the host's blood and nibble on the host's internal organs.
And because the parasitic catfish is a social organism, after a wound is bitten open, hundreds of parasitic catfish will enter the host's body together.
Similar to paku piranha habits, parasitic catfish are also attracted to human urine, and there have been several cases of parasitic catfish sucking to death.
After the relevant scholars dissected the body of the deceased, the scholars concluded that the parasitic catfish entered the body along the urethra of the deceased. If once something happens that the parasitic catfish enters the inside of the human body.
The only solution was to be taken to a surgical hospital where the doctor would perform the extraction. But it is not easy to pick, not to mention that parasitic catfish are social animals.
It is said that the basin of the Amazon River has reached 6400 kilometers, even if it can be found in time after the parasitic catfish enter the body, how to send it to the hospital and whether the hospital sent to it can perform such surgery is a big problem.
Based on this, the parasitic catfish was once regarded by the locals as the most feared creature, and this impression even exceeded that of piranhas that were more than a thousand times larger than the parasitic catfish.
As a living fossil of modern fish, Arapaima is also known as an elephant fish. Like elephants on land, arapaima is huge among fish, generally reaching about six meters.
Because of its large size, the arapaima is also one of the largest known freshwater fish in the world. Arapaima has no sharp weapons, but its outer skin is very hard.
The reason why it can become the most famous overlord on the Amazon River is also because of the huge body and strong tail of the arapaima.
Being flung by the arapaima, the better end is the internal bleeding and fracture, and the worse result is to directly become the arapaima plate.
Because the skin of arapaima is very hard, in South America, whenever the local population catches this fish, it is necessary to break the skin of the arapaima with a hammer and hammer.
In some areas, the scales of arapaima are also made into self-defense tools and carried by the local indigenous people. As a fish that has evolved for thousands of years, arapaima has also evolved organs similar to human lungs in its own body.
This organ allows arapaima to breathe directly, and even in some waters with scarce water sources, arapaima can live freely.
After talking about the largest arapaima among freshwater fish, let's talk about the largest South American otter among otters.
In the impression of ordinary people, otters are very cute and docile images, but on the Amazon River, the South American otter is a well-known hegemon.
Unlike the petite and cute otter in the aquarium, the South American big otter is a giant otter, and the adult South American big otter can not only reach two meters long, but also weigh about 60 pounds, which is extremely aggressive.
Like the parasitic catfish, the South American otter is a social creature that generally forms a small group whenever the South American otter goes out hunting.
Coupled with the innate swimming talent and hunting skills of the South American otter, in many cases the recipes of the South American otter are crocodiles living on the Amazon River.
If it is an experienced large crocodile, under the siege of the South American otter, it usually loses its tail or arm part.
If it is a small crocodile that is still in the growth stage, under the siege of the South American otter, there will rarely be a phenomenon of rushing out of the siege, and in most cases, the small crocodile will become the dish of the South American otter.
Because the siege of the South American otter is too fierce, so the crocodiles on the Amazon River are also called "bald tails", as to why the tail is bald, I am afraid that the answer has to ask the South American otters.
This issue of the Knowledge Bureau's story about the Amazon River is explained here, how do you think about these animals? What else would you like to know? Everyone is welcome to leave a message in the comment area to discuss.
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