The slow-moving fish have little to fear from the piranhas who share their habitats. South American arapaima can grow to be 10 feet long and weigh over 400 pounds. Relative to its body size, the black piranha’s bite is more powerful than that of any other bony fish. A 2012 study found it can slam its muscular jaws with a bite force of 320 Newtons, three times stronger than an American alligator’s. Native to the upper half of South America, the black piranha measures 8 to 15 inches long. Proportionately, the black piranha has the strongest bite of any bony fish. Though the wimple spends its entire life eating scales, some other piranhas will only feed on them as juveniles. After it sneaks up on a target, it opens its jaws at a 120-degree angle and rips scales off the other animal’s sides. The wimple piranha has turned the scale-grazing strategy into an art form.
In other words, they're a renewable food source: A piranha can repeatedly pluck scales off the same victim for years without killing it.
The scales and fins of many fish are 34 to 85 percent protein, but what’s more important is the fact that they’ll often grow back. A few piranhas specialize in eating scales.
These fish remove the tough outer shells with their teeth before devouring the contents. Sean Davis/iStock via Getty ImagesĮven well-known meat-eating species like the red-bellied and black piranhas can’t resist the occasional fruit, leaf, or fig. Piranhas don't really deserve their bloodthirsty reputation. By gathering in larger numbers, individual piranhas lower their odds of getting eaten. The fish who swam alone or in small clusters had faster breathing rates-a clear symptom of stress. In a 2005 study, cormorant models were shown to groups of captive red-bellied piranhas. Research suggests traveling in schools is a defensive strategy against predators like cormorants, caimans, and river dolphins. Schools of piranhas aren't trying to gang up on their victims. Usually, the human victim is bitten only once and lives, though scientists think the fish aren’t above scavenging human corpses. Male piranhas have also been known to lash out while guarding their eggs. Other attacks happen in places where food scraps have been dumped into the water. This probably explains a 2017 incident in which 70 river-bathers were attacked by piranhas in Rosario, Argentina. For the most part, free-swimming piranhas in their natural habitat avoid people, though they may target human swimmers when water levels are low and food is scarce. Piranha attacks on humans are seldom fatal.īites usually happen out of the water: Captured piranhas may chomp on fishermen who try to extricate them from hooks and nets. Here are 10 piranha facts that may surprise you. But in reality, the fish usually try to avoid humans out in the wild. In Hollywood, they’re often depicted as ravenous pack-hunters who won’t hesitate to eat their way through Bond villains and beach-going teenagers. They're found in freshwater rivers, ponds, and streams throughout northern South America, and they have a reputation for ferocity-even malice. After sharks, piranhas are one of the world’s most misunderstood fish.
0 kommentar(er)
