WEBVTT - Could Piranhas Really Eat a Cow in Under a Minute?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lorn

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<v Speaker 1>voleban here. When Theodore Roosevelt went on a hunting expedition

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<v Speaker 1>in Brazil in nineteen thirteen, he got his money's worth.

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<v Speaker 1>Standing on the bank of the Amazon River, he watched

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<v Speaker 1>piranhas attack a cow with shocking ferocity. It was a

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<v Speaker 1>scene out of a horror film of water boiling with

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<v Speaker 1>frenzied piranhas and blood, and after about a minute or two,

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<v Speaker 1>a skeleton floating to the suddenly calm surface. Roosevelt was

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<v Speaker 1>appropriately shocked and talked about it in his nineteen fourteen

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<v Speaker 1>book Through the Brazilian Wilderness. He wrote, they are the

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<v Speaker 1>most ferocious fish in the world. They will snap a

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<v Speaker 1>finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water. They

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<v Speaker 1>mutilate swimmers. In every river town in Paraguay there are

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<v Speaker 1>men who have been thus mutilated. They will rend and

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<v Speaker 1>devour alive any wounded man or beast, for blood in

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<v Speaker 1>the water excites them to madness. Thus the American legend

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<v Speaker 1>of the piranha had begun. Hollywood picked it up from

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<v Speaker 1>there with the nineteen seventy eight horror flick Piranha, directed

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<v Speaker 1>by cult film Officionado Jo Dante, notably right after the

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<v Speaker 1>smash hit Jaws came out in nineteen seventy five, When

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<v Speaker 1>flesh eating piranhas are accidentally released into a summer resorts rivers,

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<v Speaker 1>the guests become their next meal. It was followed by

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen eighty one's Piranha two The Spawning, which was James

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<v Speaker 1>Cameron's directorial debut, and then a comedic remake of the

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<v Speaker 1>original in twenty ten Pirana three D, followed by its

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<v Speaker 1>sequel in twenty twelve, Pirana three Double D. All of this,

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<v Speaker 1>although purposefully silly, cemented the idea of the piranha as

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<v Speaker 1>a threat in our minds. But is this fish's vicious

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<v Speaker 1>reputation desert let's find out. First off, we're not talking

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<v Speaker 1>about gargantuan monsters here. Piranhas top out at about two

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<v Speaker 1>feet long that's sixty centimeters, and most are only about

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<v Speaker 1>eight inches or twenty centimeters and weigh just a few pounds.

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<v Speaker 1>The most aggressive of the roughly twenty species found in

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<v Speaker 1>the Amazon River, the red bellied piranha, is on the

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<v Speaker 1>small end of the spectrum and usually weighs about three

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<v Speaker 1>pounds or a little less than one and a half kilos. However,

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<v Speaker 1>in the case of piranhas, it's not the size that counts.

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<v Speaker 1>It's the bite. A piranha's teeth they're only about a

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<v Speaker 1>quarter inch long around four millimeters, but they're very finely serrated,

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<v Speaker 1>and the whole jaw mechanism is designed for chomping efficiency.

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<v Speaker 1>The teeth are spaced in an interlocking pattern, so when

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<v Speaker 1>a piranha jaw snaps shut, the top teeth and bottom

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<v Speaker 1>teeth interlace like dozens of pairs of scissors, and their

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<v Speaker 1>jaws are strong they can bite right through the bone

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<v Speaker 1>of say a human tow. Furthermore, piranhas don't chew. When

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<v Speaker 1>they bite down, the chunk of flesh they take out

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<v Speaker 1>of their prey goes right into their bellies. They just

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<v Speaker 1>keep snapping their jaws shut and filling themselves up. Also,

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<v Speaker 1>paranas are very efficient team eaters. A school and a

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<v Speaker 1>feeding frenzy will rotate continuously, so as each piranha takes

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<v Speaker 1>a bite, it moves out of the way so that

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<v Speaker 1>the fish behind it can get a bite, and so on.

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<v Speaker 1>They take turns at such speed that you get that

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<v Speaker 1>boiling water effect. If a large enough school was aggressive

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<v Speaker 1>enough It's entirely possible for piranha's too strip an animal

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<v Speaker 1>as big as a cow in just a few minutes,

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<v Speaker 1>if not under sixty seconds. But the key thing to

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<v Speaker 1>know about Roosevelt and his story is that although he

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<v Speaker 1>explored the Brazilian Amazon as an avid hunter, he wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>exactly the average tourist. He was a former US president

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<v Speaker 1>traveling with dozens of journalists, and his guides wanted him

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<v Speaker 1>to be very pleased with his trip. Feeding frenzies are

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<v Speaker 1>not an everyday occurrence. Roosevelt's guides in Brazil had set

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<v Speaker 1>up the scene for their famous guest. They set nets

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<v Speaker 1>to close off a small part of the river and

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<v Speaker 1>tossed hundreds of piranhas into it, trapping them at a

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<v Speaker 1>larger density than their usual school of twenty plus. By

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<v Speaker 1>the time they threw that poor cow into the water,

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<v Speaker 1>the poor piranhas were stressed and starving, So eating an

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<v Speaker 1>entire cow in a minute or two is not the norm.

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<v Speaker 1>But what and how do piranhas usually eat. Attacking a live,

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<v Speaker 1>land based animal isn't out of the question for piranhas.

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<v Speaker 1>They have been known to attack sick or old animals

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<v Speaker 1>that come to drink from the river. When a cow

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<v Speaker 1>lowers its head, they'll clamp off to its face. If

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<v Speaker 1>the cow is too weak to fight back, the piranhas

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<v Speaker 1>will drag it into the water and beat it. But

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<v Speaker 1>live mammals are not the mainstay of their diet. Mostly

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<v Speaker 1>in that category they're scavengers. The skeletons of people and

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<v Speaker 1>other land based animals found in the Amazon apparently eaten

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<v Speaker 1>by piranhas weren't attacked alive. They were already dead when

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<v Speaker 1>the piranhas got to them. As with other fish, land

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<v Speaker 1>based mammals are by no means a big part of

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<v Speaker 1>the purana's diet. They eat other fish, mostly including sometimes

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<v Speaker 1>other puranas, along with insects, worms, and shrimp. They will

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<v Speaker 1>ambush prey by lurking and then dashing out, but puranas

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<v Speaker 1>aren't even strictly carnivores. They'll eat pretty much anything they

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<v Speaker 1>can get, including fruits and other plants, especially when they're young.

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<v Speaker 1>The truth is that, contrary to legend, most piranhas don't

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<v Speaker 1>really attack anything. Most of the species and the Amazon

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<v Speaker 1>survive in entirely by taking small bites out of the

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<v Speaker 1>fins and scales of other fish as they pass by.

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<v Speaker 1>The fish swim away only slightly disturbed, and their fins

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<v Speaker 1>and scales grow back. Humans can also get in necked

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<v Speaker 1>deep enough to need stitches, and sadly, that is happening

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<v Speaker 1>more often in recent years, as dams and human habitation

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<v Speaker 1>having encroached on piranha's native territory in the fresh water

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<v Speaker 1>ponds and creeks of South America. To come full circle

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<v Speaker 1>of life, piranhas themselves have few predators, aside from humans

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<v Speaker 1>who sometimes catch them as food or kill them as

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<v Speaker 1>a pest. Even though puranhas are small, they're seldom eaten

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<v Speaker 1>by larger fish that tend to gulp their prey that

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<v Speaker 1>razor sharp bite would really hurt going down. But during

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<v Speaker 1>the dry season, piranhas are eaten regularly by herons and

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<v Speaker 1>cayman lizards. When water levels are low and the fish

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<v Speaker 1>end up trapped in increasingly small ponds but no food,

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<v Speaker 1>Unable to defend themselves, the herons and cayman's come in

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<v Speaker 1>and finish them off. Because of that lack of predators,

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<v Speaker 1>many countries of outlawed the import or possession of piranhas,

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<v Speaker 1>even as aquarium pets, the risk they might be released

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<v Speaker 1>into local waters and cause a serious threat to the

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<v Speaker 1>ecological balance there is too great. But still as hazardous

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<v Speaker 1>as piranhas can be in large and hungry numbers, you

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<v Speaker 1>probably don't need to be as worried about them as

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<v Speaker 1>Theodore Roosevelt or the B movies tell you. Today's episode

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<v Speaker 1>is based on the article can piranhas really strip a

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<v Speaker 1>cow to the bone in under a minute? On how

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<v Speaker 1>stuffworks dot com, written by Julia Layton. Brain Stuff is

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<v Speaker 1>production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot

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<v Speaker 1>Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts

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