Due to the movies which showcase how ferocious and scary these fishes can be, piranhas have claimed their title as one of the deadliest sea creatures in the world. But, reality is far more frightening than that because these fishes have an arsenal of razor sharp teeth complemented with agile bites.
However, we may have misunderstood the Piranha’s method and reason for attacking. In a TV show entitled River Monsters, the host of the show, Jeremy Wade discovered that a piranha will not randomly attack a living creature without some kind of stimulus.
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In Jeremy’s experiment, he placed 100 red belly piranhas in a swimming pool. And, not only that, he specifically chose piranhas that haven’t claimed anything. In short, 100 hungry piranhas were now swimming in the pool.
The first thing he wanted to observe was how would the piranhas react to the scent of blood. Jeremy then proceed to do so by adding a drop of blood in the pool. He noticed that the fishes swarmed the cloud of blood, but they sensed that there was nothing they can chew. The next step was to give them a piece of meat.
In a matter of seconds after putting the meat, a single piranha bit it. Then, it attracted a few more piranhas and then a feeding frenzy began. When it was Jeremy’s time to take a dip, the piranhas surprisingly neglected him. Not even a tiny bite or attack was initiated.
This experiment is solid evidence that these ferocious beasts will only attack if their nostrils smell blood.