- There is the chance that I will be bitten.
Be prepared.
If that happens, there's going to be a lot of blood,
so brace yourselves.
One.
Two.
Three.
Hands going in.
Start the clock.
(reels whirring)
(fast drumming music)
(sinister music)
No fish other than the shark
has driven fear into the heart of humanity
like the piranha.
Native to South America,
there are over 50 described species,
and they inhabit pretty much every freshwater system,
moving in schools and silently stalking their next victim.
I'm no stranger to these toothy fish,
and in the summer of 2019
I became witness to their razor-sharp weaponry.
Okay, so getting ready to swim with caiman,
and we're also catching piranha in the process,
and I tried to get a picture
and had one bite the tip of my finger off.
That is a lot of blood.
Those teeth are razor sharp.
I tried to peel down the lip just a tiny bit
and it went (mimics chomping) like that,
and really took a good chunk out of the tip of my finger.
And just in case you're wondering, yes, it hurt.
But are these fish truly aggressive?
Clearly, if you catch one,
put your finger close to its mouth,
and try to see its teeth,
you will end up like me.
But do they have an appetite for human flesh?
We are about to find out if I can be
eaten alive by piranha.
Today, I'm in my home city of Columbus, Ohio,
and I will be conducting this crazy experiment
at Aquarium Adventure.
Their impressive 12,000-square-foot facility
is home to thousands of fish, marine animals,
and every size aquarium you can possibly imagine.
I am here to visit the resident population
of red-belly piranha.
The dinner table has been set,
so let's get right down to business.
I have to admit,
it's pretty intimidating standing behind a tank
filled with red piranha.
Now, if you look at one of these fish as an individual,
it doesn't seem that threatening.
But when you see six of them swimming around like this,
that's what you call a school.
And when there's six fish, yeah,
it definitely gets your heart racing.
Now the big question that we wanna answer tonight
is whether or not piranha will eat human flesh.
But before we do that,
first let's take a look
at some of the cool anatomical features of these fish.
Now, when you look at the piranha's body,
they've got a very dominant head.
Those big bulbous eyes tell you
that these fish have incredible eyesight.
But the thing that's most noticeable is that big underbite.
That lower jaw tells you that this fish packs a punch
when it comes to its bite.
The jaw structure is broken down
into four different sections.
What's so cool about these teeth
is that they're interlocking, razor sharp,
and triangular in form,
and they lock together like pieces of a puzzle.
Add that together with the shaking and the spinning,
and oh, buddy, you get attacked by a swarm of piranhas
and you're going to be in a very bad situation.
And similar to sharks,
they replace their teeth throughout
the entire course of their lives.
But unlike sharks,
these entire jaw segments replace themselves periodically,
which means that an entire section of the jaw
falls out of the fish,
and then a new section grows right in.
In the wild, piranha are considered predators.
In many instances, they are opportunistic,
which means that they'll feast upon
pretty much anything they come across.
But it's primarily their sense of smell
and their ability to hone in on hearing
that makes them such an effective predator.
You have to think about where these fish live,
throughout water systems in South America
that are oftentimes quite murky.
So, when the fish can't see its prey,
it needs to hone in using smell and sound.
Oftentimes, they will attack things
that are splashing about.
This may signal an animal that is rooted and struggling,
which obviously makes for an easier victim.
When it comes to attacking large prey items,
yes, they have been known to attack things
as large as livestock.
Of course, humans have been bitten,
and close to 200 bites are reported every single year.
When you look at the piranha, you think to yourself,
okay, obviously with that dentition, it's a predator.
But this is not an apex predator.
There are many other animals
within the piranha's environment
that will take the opportunity
to feast on one of these fish.
Caiman, otters, river dolphins,
and even waterfowl like herons and egrets
will definitely take the opportunity
to eat one of these fish.
That's why they move together as a group.
When you have a school,
you seem bigger and more intimidating,
which means you're much less likely to be predated on.
All right, I know what you guys are thinking.
Coyote, you're going the long way around the fishbowl!
Let's get into the experiment.
We wanna find out whether or not you're going to be bitten
by one or all of these fish.
There's six of them in there,
so I'd say the odds are pretty good.
So, if you guys are ready, I'm Coyote Peterson,
and I think it's time to be eaten alive by piranha.
And I'm not gonna shake my hands around there
and cause a disturbance.
I'm gonna gently place them in slowly and see what happens.
I'm gonna keep my hands there for 60 seconds.
There is the chance that I will be bitten.
Be prepared.
If that happens, there's going to be a lot of blood,
so brace yourselves.
(sighs)
(growls) Okay.
(sighs)
All right, I'm stalling.
Here we go.
One.
Two.
Three.
Hands going in.
Start the clock.
60 seconds.
(sinister music)
They're definitely moving much more with my hands in there
than when my hands were not in there.
Now, they may be feeling skittish
in the presence of my hands.
You see, my hand is pretty close.
They're actually being touched right now by the fish.
Fins drifting up against me.
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.
Look at that, look at that!
So far, nothing.
I'm gonna drift my hands closer in this direction.
Okay.
My hand, my left hand and my forearm
are completely surrounded by the piranhas.
I can feel the tails brushing up against me.
Oh, man.
Fishes' faces right close to my hand.
Oh, boy, it feels like they might take a bite.
(startled yelping)
Nope, nope, getting some active tails.
Hand in the middle of the fish.
So, my right hand
is completely away from the fish altogether,
but my left hand is completely surrounded
by the fish at this point.
Look at that.
Right in the school of piranha, no bite happening.
Okay, now I've sort of gotten over the initial fear
and the fact that the piranha
are slapping their tails up against me,
I'm beginning to feel like
they're just gonna ignore me at this point.
So far, no bite.
And I feel like even if a bite came at this point,
it would simply be a curiosity bite to say,
"What is this in our tank?
"Is it something that I can eat?"
Don't feel as if they're going to swarm
into one of those frenzies like you would see in a movie
where they strip all the flesh,
oh, boy, I thought it was about to take a bite, there.
Just getting smacked by tails.
No bites happening.
Hands coming out.
Whew!
Hands shaking a little bit, I will admit that,
but absolutely no bites.
All flesh still intact.
So, what we've seen in the Hollywood B movies
of these fish devouring human flesh right down to the bone
definitely did not happen within this scenario.
Okay.
Ugh, gotta shake off those nerves just a little bit.
Man, when the piranha are actually
slapping up against your skin,
you're thinking to yourself,
okay, could that next movement
be some of those razor-sharp teeth
taking a big circular chunk out of your hand
or out of your forearm?
Okay, so the last test, the ultimate test
is now going to be to hold this fish filet underwater
with my hand
and see if they can tell the difference
between the filet and my hand.
So, this is going to be fish flesh and oils
mixed together with my hand.
Let's see if they go for that.
Are you guys ready?
Here we go.
Hand and fish filet going back in to the piranha tank.
One.
Two, it doesn't get any easier.
Three.
(sinister music)
What I'm doing is actually wiggling
to play around just a little bit.
Try to give them that motion, that movement
that as we've read,
piranha are drawn into things
that are splashing and struggling.
So, if I use my hand to make the filet
look like a struggling prey item,
will that evoke an attack?
They honestly want nothing to do with my hand
or the fish filet.
So, what I'm gonna do now is drive my hand and the filet
into the school of fish and see what happens.
Slowly.
Guys hungry?
Free feast!
Human hand, half price, fish filet free to consume.
Anybody who wanna try a taste test?
Just one little bite.
Anybody gonna go for it?
Six fish.
Six fish, six chances for a bite.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
At this point, I'm completely at ease with my hand
being inside of the piranha's tank.
You got three fish on one side, three fish on the other.
They want absolutely nothing to do
with the fish filet or with my hand.
Okay, hand
and fish filet
coming up and out of the water.
No bites on the filet.
No bites on my hand.
Perhaps the rumors that piranha
are bloodthirsty, ravenous, flesh-eating killers
is nothing more than a rumor.
Typically they're thought of as being carnivores,
but truth be told, they're really omnivores.
Piranha will eat berries, nuts,
and pretty much anything that they can scavenge upon.
It's a misnomer in many instances
that piranhas will just strip something of its flesh
if it's already alive and turn it into a feast.
Now, it is fair to say that this is a controlled setting
and these fish have been raised in captivity.
So, will piranha in the wild behave differently?
I'm not sure.
Perhaps that's a test that we need to place
back out into the wild.
So, the next step is for us to head to South America,
back to the Pantanal,
and actually place me into the environment
within a school of these fish to determine,
will piranha truly eat a human alive?
Stay tuned, guys.
Part two is coming soon.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
Every year there are said to be around
200 piranha bites in the wild.
However, these bites are minor.
Generally, these fish are shy and quick to flee,
especially if larger animals like a human
enter into their watery environment.
So, while their teeth may be razor-sharp
and their notorious reputations always define them
as bloodthirsty Hollywood horror creatures,
piranha simply desire to be left alone.
Big thanks to Aquarium Adventures
for letting us film at their location.
And if you dream about setting up your own aquatic system,
their incredible staff will make you feel right at home.
Hey, Coyote Pack!
If you thought being
eaten alive by piranha was nerve-wracking,
make sure to go back and watch
as a swarm of blood-sucking leeches
turn me into an all-you-can-eat buffet line.
And don't forget, subscribe and join memberships
so you can join me and the crew
on our next wild adventure.
And holy cow, is this uncomfortable.
(animal roaring)