The narrator, Coyote Peterson, is in Columbus, Ohio, at Aquarium Adventure, where they are conducting an experiment to test the aggression and predation of piranha. The experiment involves placing the narrator's hands into a tank filled with piranha. Despite the narrator's fear and the fish's aggressive behavior, no bites occur during the experiment. The narrator concludes that the rumors of piranha being "bloodthirsty, ravenous, flesh-eating killers" are largely exaggerated, and the fish are actually more interested in avoiding humans than attacking them. The narrator suggests that the next step in the experiment would be to take place in the wild in South America to see if the fish's behavior changes.
1. The narrator has a chance to be bitten by a piranha while swimming with them and catching them in the summer of 2019.
2. The piranha have razor-sharp teeth and can cause a lot of blood when they bite.
3. The piranha are native to South America and there are over 50 described species.
4. They inhabit every freshwater system and move in schools.
5. The narrator has firsthand experience with these fish and has witnessed their razor-sharp weaponry.
6. The experiment is conducted in Columbus, Ohio, at Aquarium Adventure, a facility home to thousands of fish and marine animals.
7. The piranha have a dominant head and big bulbous eyes, indicating incredible eyesight.
8. The piranha have a big underbite and a lower jaw that packs a punch.
9. The jaw structure of the piranha is broken down into four different sections.
10. The piranha have interlocking, razor-sharp, and triangular teeth that lock together like pieces of a puzzle.
11. The piranha replace their teeth throughout their lives, with entire jaw segments replacing themselves periodically.
12. Piranha are considered predators and are primarily opportunistic, feasting upon anything they come across.
13. They rely on their sense of smell and their ability to hone in on hearing to be effective predators.
14. Piranha live in murky water systems in South America, where they can't see their prey, so they need to rely on smell and sound.
15. Piranha have been known to attack things as large as livestock, and humans have been bitten.
16. The piranha move together as a group to seem bigger and more intimidating, which makes them less likely to be predated on.
17. The experiment involves the narrator placing their hands into a tank of piranha for 60 seconds.
18. The piranha moved more with the narrator's hands in there than when his hands were not in there.
19. The piranha were touching the narrator's hand and forearm but did not bite him.
20. The piranha slapped their tails up against the narrator but did not bite him.
21. The piranha ignored the narrator's hand and did not bite it.
22. The piranha did not bite the narrator's hand even when he wiggled it to simulate a struggling prey item.
23. The piranha did not bite the fish filet or the narrator's hand when they were both in the tank.
24. The narrator's conclusion is that the piranha are not bloodthirsty, ravenous, flesh-eating killers as rumored, but rather omnivores that eat berries, nuts, and anything they can scavenge upon.
25. The experiment suggests that piranha in the wild may behave differently, as these fish have been raised in captivity.
26. The next step is to head to South America, back to the Pantanal, and place the narrator into the environment within a school of these fish to determine if piranha will truly eat a human alive.