Few fish have a reputation as ferocious as the infamous piranha. With multiple movies made about this animal, most people are terrified of these creatures. Leave it to Jeremy Wade from River Monsters Official to jump into water full of piranhas!
Wade educates people with short Tik Tok videos, specializing in catching and releasing animals in their natural habitats. Recently, Jeremy was fishing and noticed he kept catching one piranha after another.
Are these freshwater fish really the fearsome river monsters that people portray them to be? Not quite. Certainly, several piranhas are predatory and have extremely sharp teeth. The aggressive bite and razor-sharp teeth of piranhas are well known. In adults, the jaw is lined with a single row of interconnecting teeth.
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The form of a piranha’s tooth as a razor is often compared to a razor, and it is obviously tailored to fit their diet of meat. The real composition of tooth enamel resembles that of sharks. Piranhas frequently lose teeth during the course of their lifetimes.
However, unlike sharks, which replace each tooth individually, piranhas replace each tooth in quarters several times during the course of their existence, which can be up to eight years in captivity. It’s not unusual to see piranhas with only one-half of their bottom jaws.
A Plunge Worth Documenting
Wade, being well-versed in wildlife, decides to shock viewers. After catching multiple piranhas and showing the camera their teeth, he simply lets himself fall into the water. The video quickly cuts off, having watchers eagerly waiting for part two!
So, why don’t these fish start tearing Jeremy to shreds? Well, piranhas are attracted to blood. As long as you don’t have any open wounds, you should be safe to swim in a body of water they call home.
Only a few individuals have actually been eaten by piranhas; in reality, people often are the ones to consume piranhas. Nevertheless, there have been human attacks, mainly in the Amazon basin.
There are over a hundred reported instances of attacks, some of which result in fatalities. However, out of over 30 species of piranha, only the red-bellied piranha is the focus of the majority of the man-eater tales.
It is a known truth that hungry piranhas will bite at nearly anything, including other piranhas. Conspecific predation happens regularly enough in piranhas for them to acquire exceptionally quick tooth, body wall, and fin regeneration.
Injuries virtually heal overnight. Piranhas are not a serious threat to people, but they are a threat to local fish species. Because of this, several jurisdictions and nations prohibit the importation, reproduction, or even preserving them in tanks.
Thankfully, Jeremy Wade and his team are perfectly okay! Although it’s not extremely common for piranhas to attack humans, it’s always a good idea to exercise caution around wild animals that you’re not familiar with.
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