Text/Nanke Documentary
Editor/Nan Ke Documentary
<<——Preamble——>>
In many film and television works, such a fish called piranha is often depicted.
The piranha is very bloodthirsty and brutal, and any animate animal is its prey, and wherever it passes, no matter what kind of creature it is, it will eventually turn into white bones under the attack of the piranha.
It can be said that the piranhas in film and television works are very terrifying existences, but in reality, piranhas really exist in the Ameson River Basin in South America.
However, why are these piranhas, despite their great power, not to flood the Amazon basin?
<< - Piranhas of the Amazon - >>
In the Amazon River, although there are many fish that can be called piranhas, there are not many piranhas that can really pose a threat to humans.
These piranhas are characterized by their jagged teeth, which, along with their amazing bite force, allow them to easily cut through the skin and muscle tissue of their prey.
In addition, this red-bellied piranha often hunts in groups, relying on its sensitivity to the smell of blood to find injured prey.
In the Amazon, these schools of piranhas are a great threat to most creatures.
However, while these red-bellied piranhas are not a small threat, these terrifying-looking piranhas are not very daring, and when a single piranha encounters a large creature like a human, they will scatter in fear like other small fish.
Of course, although these red-bellied piranhas are not very daring, it is better not to injure themselves when people swim in the Amazon River, after all, when these piranhas are hungry, it is not clear whether they will attack the injured humans.
However, although the threat of piranha is not small, it has many natural predators in the "mastery" Amazon ecological environment.
<<·——食人鱼的天敌——·>>
For piranhas, their greatest weapon is undoubtedly with their sharp teeth, with which they can tear almost any living thing apart.
However, when the piranha is confronted by a creature called the arapaima, its sharp tooth weapon is of little use.
Arapaima
The arapaima is one of the largest freshwater fish on the planet, not only is it very large, but its scales are also very hard, and these hard scales give the arapaima a solid armor all over its body.
With this sturdy protection, arapaima can easily defend against the sharp teeth of piranhas, leaving the piranha's sole reliance useless.
When a piranha encounters arapaima, it faces the same fate as a big fish eating a small fish.
In addition to arapaima, piranhas face a formidable opponent in the Amazon – electric eels.
Seeing the name electric eel, we should know very well what its weapon is, that is, the electric current it emits.
According to the research of scientists, about eighty percent of the electric eel's body is full of electrical cells, which can make the electric eel emit 300-800 volts.
Therefore, when the electric eel encounters the piranha, it will release a large amount of current around it, and these strong currents will cause the piranha around the electric eel to be corona, and after the piranha is coronaized, it will naturally lose the threat to the electric eel, and thus become the food of the electric eel.
In addition, another important factor limiting the growth of piranha populations is the natural environment of the Amazon Basin.
Amazon
Although piranhas, as a native creature of the Amazon, have adapted to the harsh natural environment of the Amazon as much as possible, the piranha eggs cannot.
When piranhas lay their eggs, most of them flow through the fast-flowing waters of the Ameson River, where they struggle to survive in the face of predation and turbulent currents from a variety of animals.
Rushing rivers
It is precisely because of the influence of natural enemies and living environment that piranhas have not flooded in the Amazon River Basin, and in addition, continuous human activities have also brought great suffering to the survival of piranhas.
<< - Effects of human activities - >>
Despite the danger of piranhas, this does not prevent local residents from incorporating piranhas into their diets.
After all, for piranhas, an animal that only relies on the instinct to hunt, humans only need to find some meat to use as bait, and they can easily harvest a large number of piranhas.
These piranhas are nothing more than sharp teeth and have no toxins in their own right, so they will be a good ingredient for the local people.
Therefore, the continuous fishing of piranhas by humans is also the reason why it is difficult for the local piranhas to flood in the Ameson River.
Not only that, in the Amazon Basin, due to the unrestrained exploitation of various natural resources by human beings for a long time, the ecological environment of the Amazon River Basin has suffered serious damage.
Once the ecological environment is damaged, then this will inevitably affect all kinds of animals and plants in the wild, and piranhas are naturally included.
The pollution caused by a large number of human activities has caused great damage to the living environment of piranhas, which has led to the decline of piranhas in the Amazon River instead of flooding.
<<·——警惕食人鱼的“入侵”——·>>
For piranhas in the Amazon Basin, due to various factors, it is difficult for their population to increase significantly.
However, we should also recognize that although the piranha does not occupy a high position in the Amazon ecosystem, this does not mean that it does not pose a threat to the ecology of other regions.
As mentioned above, one of the main reasons why piranhas are not able to flood the Amazon basin is that the water flow in the Amazon River is so fast that the survival rate of piranha eggs is not high.
However, in many parts of the planet, the rivers are not as turbulent as the Amazon, but they are also very warm, which is very conducive to the hatching of piranha eggs.
In addition, the addition of piranhas will also cause great damage to the ecological environment in these areas, after all, piranhas in these areas do not have natural predators such as arapaima and electric eels.
Therefore, when piranhas enter the rivers in these areas as an alien species, then piranhas are very prone to flooding, and once piranhas are overflowing, then it will have a great impact on the local ecological species diversity.
<<·——Conclusion——·>>
Although piranhas in the Amazon basin are difficult to reproduce on a large scale due to many factors, it is difficult to grow their own population.
However, we should also be aware that once piranhas enter our rivers as an alien species, they will seriously damage the local ecosystem.
Therefore, in order to protect our natural environment, we must be vigilant against the threat to our rivers brought by these alien species represented by piranhas.