No,
this is not a video about the
fictional 70s blockbuster
We're talking about a fish that's
much, much smaller than a great white shark,
but that's got a bite
about two times greater!
Supposedly, Its teeth are so sharp
that if it were to bite you,
you would only realize it
after you saw blood.
But what if you were attacked by a school
of these colorful,
fast-moving carnivores?
How much would you feel?
And how long would you last?
Piranhas have been around
for a really long time.
Fossil evidence puts the piranhas'
ancestors in South America
as far back as 25 million years ago!
And the modern piranhas
we know and love today
have been here for 1.8 million years.
So we've had some time to
learn about these fearsome little river-dwellers.
But how much of it is true?
Pay attention!
What you're about to see
might just save your life!
That piranhas are vicious,
blood-thirsty creatures
that will tear you apart in minutes...
is largely a myth.
In 1914, former president Theodore Roosevelt
was on a survey expedition in Brazil,
where he witnessed a group of locals
tossing a dead cow into a river
that they had stocked with starving piranhas.
The feeding frenzy that followed
led Roosevelt to see piranhas as
"the embodiment of evil ferocity."
He compared their teeth and their jaws
to those of sharks,
and claimed that their preferred prey
is usually much larger than themselves.
Well, the story stuck.
And naturally, like "Jaws" before it,
"Piranha" became a 1978 cult classic,
spreading several myths about the fish
that a lot of people still believe.
The real truth is that
piranhas are relatively calm fish.
And most of them are scavengers
that feed on insects, worms
and plant material
in the rivers where they live.
Of the few species of piranha that
are attracted to the smell of blood,
well, they tend to go for prey that's
roughly the same size as them.
In fact, if you fell into a pool of piranhas,
chances are they'd actually be scared of you!
Piranhas aren't really interested in humans
unless they are extremely hungry,
and the human is already dead.
But it's not like someone would
starve a pack of piranhas and
put them in a pool just to
watch them eat something!
At worst, you might get
nipped and gnawed on a little,
which is scary enough!
But, you can rest assured that
there has never been a
scientifically proven case
of a human being killed by a piranha.
Sorry, gory B-movie lovers!
But don't let me spoil all the fun!
Even though you know the truth now,
the idea of what piranhas can do
is still terrifying!
These fish typically grow up to
50 cm (20 inches) long.
They hunt in packs and have a bite force that's
three times their body weight.
This means that, relative to its size,
a piranha bites harder
than a great white shark,
harder than an American alligator,
harder than a T-Rex,
and even harder than a megalodon!
And while it's highly unlikely to happen,
if, for some reason you were attacked
by a school of piranhas,
roughly 400 of them could
turn you into a skeleton in about 5 minutes.
But of course, there's always a bigger fish.
So even if piranhas aren't really something
you have to worry about,
there's still a lot of underwater
that you'll want to avoid.
Can you imagine being
swallowed whole by a whale?
Well, that's a story for another WHAT IF.