In 2013, in Rosario, Argentina, a little girl's finger was bitten off by a piranha, and the scene was terrible. Are piranhas really that scary in real life? What threats do they pose to humanity?
Speaking of piranhas, many people have the impression of an extremely terrifying character. After all, the name alone is creepy enough. Especially in some parts of South America, legends of piranhas attacking humans are often circulated.
Do piranhas really eat people? Or will it hide from humans?
In 2016, a scientist conducted an experiment to test whether piranhas could eat people. The scientist had put dozens of piranhas in a pool, and then the scientist put on protective gear and slowly walked into the pool.
He originally thought that piranhas would attack him in groups, but he did not expect that as soon as these piranhas saw the scientists, they were immediately scared and hid to the other side.
During this process, the scientists kept chasing the piranha, but the piranha seemed to deliberately avoid him. Anyway, if the scientist goes east, the piranha goes west, and this group of piranhas seem to treat scientists as a huge natural enemy.
In desperation, scientists could only put a piece of meat in the water to attract the attention of piranhas, but they did not expect that piranhas were still indifferent to this. Until the scientists swim to the other end of the pool, the piranha will tiptoe near the beef, and then eat the beef in a lightning speed.
In the end, in order to explore whether piranhas can eat people, scientists directly sacrificed a big trick: that is, dripping blood in the pool, and at the same time, scientists also took off all the protective gear on their bodies.
When everything was processed, scientists found that piranhas were indeed stimulated by blood, and the surface of the water began to flutter for a while. However, despite the madness of piranhas, they remain indifferent to scientists. Or rather, the piranhas were terrified of the scientist.
After this experiment, scientists came to the conclusion that humans are a huge predator relative to piranhas. In this case, piranhas will regard humans as their natural enemies. It's all to this extent, and the piranha must be hiding as far as possible.
What is the situation with piranhas that attack humans?
In fact, from the previous data, there are no incidents of piranhas really eating people, most of them are piranha attacks and attacks on livestock.
For example, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, piranhas often attack livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is reported that in the watershed of the state, about 1,200 cattle are attacked by piranhas every year. Of course, women washing clothes by the river are occasionally attacked by piranhas.
All in all, piranhas generally do not actively attack humans, and they attack humans mainly because humans have touched their taboos in some way. For example, if humans suddenly invade the territory of piranhas, in order to defend their territorial sovereignty, piranhas will attack humans like wolves.
Second, piranhas also attack humans during spawning. Because the piranha at that time was the most emotionally mad, and humans just came to this watershed, piranhas in order to avoid humans destroying fish eggs, so they will attack humans.
Piranha also attack humans when they are extremely hungry. For example, there is no food in a certain area of water, but there are hundreds of piranhas waiting to be fed. When humans accidentally enter this water, it is not far from heaven.
But at other times, piranhas generally do not attack humans. Even if humans are close to them, they will avoid them. Of course, piranhas are not interested in humans not because they don't like eating human flesh, but because they are timid.
According to scientists, piranhas have many natural enemies. Whether in the water, in the air, or even on land, there are piranha natural enemies. For example, electric eels, spiny catfish, arapaima in the water, eagles, falcons in the air, and giant otters on land, like these creatures, are all natural enemies of piranhas, so that the survival pressure of piranhas is ridiculous.
It is precisely because of such a huge pressure to survive that piranhas have always maintained a vigilant attitude towards the outside world. As a last resort, it generally does not take the initiative. This also explains why piranhas are always in groups, after all, if a piranha comes out alone, it is not a simple matter to overcome your own psychological barriers.
How did the terrifying reputation of piranhas come from?
Although the conclusion that piranhas do not eat people has come out, there are still many people who use piranhas to create gimmicks to win a wave of traffic. For example, in 2015, a boat rollover accident suddenly occurred in a river basin in Brazil, which caused a little girl to drown.
After the little girl drowned, the piranhas in the watershed went to eat the little girl's body because they smelled the corpse. After this incident was learned by a local media, he actually used a large chapter to describe how the little girl was bitten to death by piranhas, and at the same time made up many stories of locals being attacked by piranhas.
After the article was issued, it instantly caused a huge repercussion, so that at that time the locals did not dare to go down to the river to swim. Later, it was the government's refutation of rumors that the locals regained their understanding of piranhas, otherwise the piranha nightmare would forever float in the minds of locals.
To this day, many people still use piranhas as a gimmick to gain a wave of attention and cause a series of unnecessary panic among local residents.
The "water wolf clan" piranha is actually a harmless small fish for humans and animals?
In fact, about the legend of piranhas, there is no need to panic so much. Piranha, also known as man-eating pomfrets, is a species of fish in the family Lipocyprinidae. Strictly speaking, piranhas are divided into three types: plant-feeding, carnivorous and omnivorous.
The piranha we often talk about on TV is the carnivorous piranha, also known as the red-bellied saw salmon carp. The characteristic of this fish is that it looks flat, like a discus, and looks harmless to humans and animals.
The reason why it evolved this way is mainly for good identification. Because piranhas often go out in groups, once they encounter prey, everyone will attack in groups. In order to avoid accidental injury, piranhas can only grow into this flat appearance, so that they can be distinguished from other fish.
It is precisely because piranhas grow like this that they swim extremely slowly. According to scientists' experiments, the fastest swimming speed of piranhas is only 20 kilometers per hour, which is equivalent to the speed of a bicycle. So in the future, after you encounter a piranha in the water, don't panic, as long as you swim faster than it, you can escape.
Of course, although the piranha swims slowly, its attack ability is not said. One of the most powerful weapons of the piranha is its teeth. According to scientists' tests, the bite force of piranha teeth can reach 150 kg, which is equivalent to the weight of 4 adults.
In addition, the teeth of piranhas themselves are relatively sharp, so the general prey is like tofu for them, and it is broken with a slight tear. Because of this, in many watersheds in South America, some small and medium-sized fish have to take a detour after encountering piranhas.
According to scientists' research, piranhas generally attack their eyeballs or vulnerable parts in the process of attacking their prey. When one or two piranhas blind their prey, the prey can only rampage through the waters. At this time, more and more piranhas will surround the prey, and then use a rotary bite method to bite the skin of the prey.
When the prey has a wound, the piranha will all gather at the wound and bite fiercely until the wound is torn wider and wider. Then the piranha will enter the internal organs of the prey through the wound, and gnaw the heart, liver, spleen, stomach and kidneys of the prey, at which time the prey has basically been explained. So in terms of ferocity, piranhas do qualify as "aquatic wolves."
Don't worry, there are no piranhas in China
Although piranhas are so ferocious and aggressive, we don't have to be afraid of piranhas. If nothing else, just looking at the distribution range of piranhas is enough to put you at ease.
For now, piranhas are mainly found in the Amazon basin of South America and in rivers east of the Andes. As for other areas, there are basically no piranhas, and even if there are, they are all plant-eating piranhas, which are not a species of red-bellied saw salmon that specializes in eating meat.
As for our China, there is no need to worry about the existence of piranhas, after all, the water system of the mainland is not suitable for the growth of piranhas. Generally speaking, piranhas in the mainland are kept at home in the form of an ornamental fish. As for the wild, the probability of seeing piranhas is almost the same as seeing Siberian tigers.
Of course, although piranhas are not widespread on the mainland, it is worth mentioning its dangers. Since the mainland currently has no natural enemies of piranhas, once piranhas enter the major river basins of the continent, it is bound to destroy the local ecological balance. What's more, it may destroy the local ecological chain, putting some species at risk of extinction.
Therefore, some friends who raise piranhas at home must pay attention to not release piranhas at will. Otherwise, when the time comes, piranhas will be flooded, but there will be no turning back.
summary
In general, piranhas are not scary, because it simply does not like to eat people. Instead, it treats humans as its natural enemies. Unless humans have touched the taboo of piranhas, or piranhas have been hungry to a certain extent, they may attack humans.
The reason why people think that piranhas are terrifying is mainly because some people on the Internet deliberately create this gimmick to attract people's attention. Therefore, let's not be fooled by the rhythmic self-media on the Internet, after all, what are the bad intentions of such a cute little creature as piranhas?