Piranha attacks on people: how river predators maim and even kill vacationers on the beaches of South America

A month ago (May 1) piranhas attacked tourists in a Brazilian resort. At least eight people were injured in the incident. There have been deaths in history, reports LiveScience.

Photo: IStock

Fish have bitten into the legs and feet of bathers with their razor-sharp teeth at a tourist beach in Taruma Asu, a region northeast of Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state.

Piranhas are omnivorous fish species that usually do not attack humans, except in times of drought or when they show characteristic aggression during the breeding season (October to March).

Experts believe the "blood frenzy" on a Brazilian beach was a case of "mistaken identity" and that the piranhas were actually after food that local restaurant patrons sometimes throw into the river.

“Piranhas don’t make unprovoked attacks on people,” said Steve Huskey, a biology professor at Western Kentucky University. “The situation described is one where piranhas get used to free food, and these bites were just another example of mistaken identity, just like shark attacks.”

“I felt an electric shock in my heel, I even thought it was an electric eel,” said Adayani Monteiro, a university student who was one of the victims of the attack. — When I got out of the water, I heard some people talking about piranhas and bites. I looked at my leg and saw a bite mark.”

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Some piranha species, including the red-bellied piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri), attack in packs.

“Species of the genus Pygocentrus found in the Amazon and San Francisco rivers are the most dangerous,” said Paulo Andreas Bacap, an ichthyologist and professor at the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Deadly attacks

More than 200 piranha attacks on people are recorded every year. PiranhaGuide. They are rarely fatal (piranhas are not as dangerous in real life as they are in Hollywood movies). But in 2022, a piranha attack killed people.

Five people were killed and 20 injured in separate attacks by piranhas in Paraguay in 2022, causing concern among locals, reports New York Post.

On January 2, a 22-year-old man went missing during a family walk along the Paraguay River, south of the capital Asunción, in Ita Enramada. The piranhas attacked him and dragged him under the water. His family contacted the police, and less than an hour later he was found with serious bite marks from ferocious fish.

In another case, a 49-year-old man was killed in the Paraguay River in the city of Puerto Rosario. He bathed and drowned as a result of a piranha attack. According to preliminary data, he had bite wounds on his face.

A third man was found dead in the Paraguay River, and a medical examiner later determined that he died of asphyxiation while submerged in the water. He also had bite marks on his face and legs.

In addition to these deaths, two other youths were killed in a piranha attack on the Tebicuari River. Bite marks were also found on their bodies.

There have been dozens of other reports of swimmers being bitten by piranhas in Itapua and other beach areas.

Other piranha attacks on people

In the first half of 2007, 190 piranha attacks were reported on a lake near the city of Palmas in Brazil, all of which were single bites to the legs. Newsweek.

Piranhas attacked a 6-year-old girl in Brazil in 2015. Ardila Muniz was in the company of her grandmother and several other children during a family picnic when their canoes were hit by a typical Brazilian storm. A raging storm caused their canoe to capsize.

The grandmother saved the rest of the children, and Ardila was washed away by the powerful waves of the river. When the girl was pulled out of the water, she was dead. Strong piranha bites were visible on her thigh.

An autopsy revealed that she had drowned to the bite.

An 11-year-old boy was the victim of a piranha attack in Peru in 2013. Reports indicate he was on a family vacation in Peru when he fell into piranha-infested waters. Later, the boy's body, bitten by fish, was removed from the water.

He is said to have drowned before the piranhas attacked his body and bit him to the bone. The incident took place during the summer when food was scarce in the Amazon region.

In Bolivia in 2011, a drunken man died after jumping into the Amazon River, which was teeming with piranhas. He did not know how to swim, and because he was very drunk, he could drown before the fish attacked him. The 18-year-old apparently jumped off his canoe near Rosario del Yata, more than 600km north of La Paz. His body was later found with bite marks. The results of the autopsy showed that the man could have died long before he was bitten by a piranha fish.

Jeremy Wade, researcher for the River Monsters program, documented the results of his investigation in an episode. Wade sought to unravel the mystery that led to the deaths of nearly 300 people in the Brazilian Amazon in 1981.

The incident took place on the riverboat Sobral Santos 2 and is considered one of the worst maritime incidents in the Amazon region. It was a ship with over 500 passengers on board and she crashed into the dock, effectively capsizing it. Although the incident happened more than 30 years ago, there is every reason to believe that the victims were attacked by piranhas.

Wade, however, says that the piranha attack could not be the reason so many sailors and passengers went missing.

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Fortunately, the victims of the attack in most cases survive. People injured by piranhas are advised to leave the water immediately and seek medical attention.

“The first action in an attack is to get out of the water and try to signal an incident as quickly as possible so that other people don’t get hurt,” said Romes Proenza, a doctor with mobile emergency services.

“You can apply pressure to the affected area with gauze, a towel or a clean cloth to prevent bleeding and take the victim to a medical center as soon as possible. Even if the bite is small, there is a risk of tetanus and infection, he said.

Why do piranhas attack people

Aggressive behavior of piranhas only occurs in exceptional circumstances, such as when large numbers of fish are trapped in small pools or starve for long periods.

Piranhas live in the Amazon region, but the attacks are random. Millions of people have lived in the Amazon for millennia, but locals say piranha attacks are rare. Brazilian swimmers even train in the Amazon.

Most piranhas are harmless, and meat-eating species tend to feed on carrion rather than prey on live animals.

“Some species of the piranha family feed only on fruits, insects and vegetables. Some specialize in eating fish scales and gnawing on the fins of other fish, Bacap said. “They may attack other live fish or animals, but they will eat dead flesh when it is available.”

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However, the presence of bathers at the feeding place can lead to confusion and aggression of the fish.

The attack in Taruma-Asu could be caused by the fact that one piranha mistook a leg for food, human blood provoked inappropriate behavior in fish.

“The attack was likely caused by blood in the water, skin lesions or movements that resembled a fish in distress,” Bacap said. “Because their teeth are so sharp, one bite can cause severe bleeding and trigger feeding behavior by the entire group.”

As soon as the meal begins, piranhas move back and forth quickly to bite their prey at high speed so that they are not accidentally bitten by another individual, according to the Sea Life Aquarium of London.

According to a 2012 study published in Scientific Reports, piranhas have the strongest bite of any bony fish—as strong as that of a great white shark. According to Husky, the black piranha (Serrasalmus rhombeus) generates a bite force of 35 times its body weight.

“When a piranha focuses its bite force on its 14 razor-sharp teeth, the bite pressure reaches immeasurable levels,” Huskey said. “They could do a lot of harm to people all over South America if they wanted to, but they don’t... and they don’t want to.”

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