Curiosity #31 Can Piranhas turn you Into Skeleton In minutes?

curiousity (55)in #science • 7 years ago

Welcome my dear Steemian friends to a new episode of Curiosity! A series in which we will answer some of the questions that makes us all curious.

Movies are filled with adventure scenes showing people being turned into skeletons in the matter of minutes by piranhas in the water streams. But still People love to keep Piranhas in home aquariums. So, whats the reality here? Are they really dangerous? can they really turn you in to bones or is it just a myth? well lets find out.

Lets, start with the basics, There are several species of Piranhas, more than 20 species actually. But most of the stories and movie scenes are related to "Red-bellied" Piranhas. It's also very true that attack on humans have also occurred in the Amazon River. Actually, there are many recorded cases of attacks resulting in minor injury to even deaths. Also there are warning signs kept in some rivers.

Piranhas attacks are mostly recorded in the dry - seasons , when the water level is low and concentration of fish is high. The fact is these fish will almost bite anything, they don't even care, they are omnivorous actually. They almost eat anything. They are like vultures of the water, mostly feeding on dead stuffs, because living things fight back.

So, How Dangerous Are they to humans?

There are certainly cases of Piranhas attacks with mutilations. But don't jump into the conclusion yet. There is more to the story. As I mentioned earlier, They are scavengers, they have tendency to feed on dead meat , rather than living things because they don't want to waste their energy fighting back. Humans aren't normally in the Piranhas diet list.

Also to prove this, Dr. Axelord showed a demonstration, by entering a pool full of piranhas wearing only swimming suits. While standing in the pool he fed the Piranhas with meat hanging from above. They immediately attacked the hanging meat but none of them even touched Dr. Axelord. They actually hide after Dr. entered the pool. This clearly shows humans are not necessarily the source of food but rather the source of danger.

What about the humans turned into skeletons by Piranhas then?

The fact is ,there are still multiple skeletons found said to be killed by piranhas but after studying each of the cases, Mr. Ivan Sazima , a Brazilian Researcher, came to the conclusion that instance of piranhas attacking human bodies have been after they've been already dead . People in amazon rivers die due to various reasons , such as drowning, seizures, trauma etc, once they are dead Piranhas attack them.

So, thats it for this episode. Hope you enjoyed it. Thank you, and don't forget to up vote, comment and resteem.

Stay Curious.