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Documentary, River Monsters S01E01 Piranha
#RiverMonsters #Piranha
#RiverMonsters #Piranha
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00Piranha. Legends tell of the most ferocious fish in the world. With razor-sharp teeth,
00:13they hunt in packs, stripping a body of its flesh in minutes. They have a reputation for killing
00:22and eating humans. Literally being stripped of all the flesh, only the boots were left.
00:28But it may not be justified. I don't think the reputation of piranhas as
00:33bloodthirsty monsters is deserved at all. I'm Jeremy Wade, biologist and extreme angler,
00:40and my mission is to find out if piranhas really are the ultimate horror of the Amazon.
00:45All they said that they saw was just a turbulence in the water of the piranhas devouring the child.
00:58I remember a story from the 70s of a bus crashing into the Amazon River in Brazil.
01:25People inside were eaten alive by piranhas.
01:37Horrific stories like this have been circulating since the discovery of South America. But every
01:51single piece of scientific research I found says that piranhas don't kill people.
01:56So are these stories real? Or are they just over-exaggerated urban myths?
02:04Fish on! Fish on!
02:08I've travelled the globe, literally putting my life on the line to prove that they're a giant,
02:13man-eating fish where no one would expect them. Big ol' mouth on there. In our freshwater rivers.
02:22But now, it's the turn of the small guys. Could piranhas really kill and eat a human?
02:31Are they the bloodthirsty killers from the movies that fill our nightmares?
02:43I visit London Zoo to talk to Brian Zimmerman, a piranha expert and assistant curator of the aquarium,
02:51to see what he thinks. There's no documented cases of a living human going into the water and being
02:59attacked by a group of piranhas and being reduced to a skeleton in seconds. But piranha are carnivorous
03:06fish. If they're hungry, it's certainly possible that they would attack to try and get food. I don't
03:11see why a human would be any different than an egret falling in the water. It's just, for a piranha,
03:17it's a potential food source. But to my knowledge, that's never happened.
03:22So if Brian believes piranhas have never attacked and killed a living person, then did this bus
03:27crash that I remember really take place? I decide to head to Manaus, the city at the heart of the
03:34Amazon, to see if I can get to the bottom of this memory and maybe track down a definite
03:39case where piranhas have eaten someone alive.
03:46And where better to start my investigation than the home of many a gruesome fisherman's
03:50tale, the Manaus fish market. With over 2,000 species of fish found in the Amazon River,
03:59more than the entire Atlantic Ocean, there's no shortage of strange-looking river monsters
04:04here.
04:05Wicked-looking spines on there. Such a variety of fish here.
04:08Scientists have determined that there are some 60 different species in the piranha subfamily,
04:12yet the majority of them are actually vegetarian. It is the flesh-eating behaviour of just a
04:19couple of species that gives them their reputation. And it's not long before my questions unearth
04:25another shocking account that shows just what they are capable of.
04:32This is a piranha story. An old man was left in his floating house by his family just for
04:38a couple of hours. They came back, he'd gone. They were just his clothes there. So, you know,
04:43they thought he must have gone to take a bath or something, but he wasn't in sight anywhere.
04:46They searched, they searched. Eventually, they found just his skeleton. I mean, literally,
04:50he'd gone in the water because he was old. He wasn't able to get back out. And the piranhas
04:55just had it. Are you close to him? No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no.
05:02Two months ago.
05:05It's another gruesome story. But here at the market, I can't track down a name or definite
05:10location for this fisherman's tale. I'm going to have to search further afield to find an
05:15eyewitness to a lethal piranha attack. The Amazon River is 4,250 miles long, twice the
05:28length of the Mississippi. It is mostly wide and slow moving, but up this distant tributary,
05:35it is quite the opposite. A fifth of all the water on earth passes through the Amazon, and
05:42the piranhas and their relatives are found in just about all of it. It's a fisherman's
05:47paradise. And it's full of river monsters. And that's a fish on, that's a fish on. Oh,
06:00there it is, there it is, jumping out of the water. That's quite strong, that's a strong
06:03fish. I've hooked a predatory fish with dental hardware straight out of a horror movie. So this
06:11is a payara. It's a relative of the piranha. It's an arms war down there. Everything's got
06:17teeth. Everything is eating everything else. And they've actually got those fangs there
06:21in the lower jaw. And they use those to puncture the swim bladder of the prey. So it just messes
06:28up the buoyancy. The small fish is then totally out of control. It's flopping around near the
06:32surface and these will just come on afterwards and mop them up. And those fangs are that big,
06:37that it has to have special holes in the upper jaw, otherwise it wouldn't be able to get its
06:42mouth closed. So it's probably, you know, some very precise engineering going on out of sight
06:47that we can't see. This vampire-like creature shows how evil-looking the piranha family can
06:54get. But despite its looks, it is not the fish responsible for attacking people. This is a
07:00solitary fish hunter. The piranha we all fear feed in packs. And they are so common in the Amazon,
07:09you can catch them almost anywhere. Normally I use high-tech gear and stealthy tactics to lure a
07:17monster onto my line. But the piranha's method of feeding is so bold that I'm changing my approach.
07:23I dispense with my normal rod and I'm just using a bit of bamboo with a short length of line on the
07:30end. Trident-tested means of catching piranha. Just a hook. On the end with a piece of wire so they
07:39don't chomp through the line. Lump of meat. And unlike other techniques where you're being quiet and
07:45stealthy, piranhas are actually attracted by noise and disturbance on the surface.
08:01Oh! There we go. Red-bellied piranha. In just a couple of minutes I've caught a small piranha. But do not be
08:10deceived, it still has knife-like teeth that can easily remove a lump of flesh in a single bite. Multiply
08:17that by the hundred or so mouths in a hungry school of piranhas and it's a death of a thousand individual cuts.
08:25A protruding jawbone with large chomping muscles means that when the mouth is closed the triangular
08:36teeth from both jaws lock together like a bear trap. They are perfectly adapted to slice off pieces of
08:45meat, fins or scales, literally taking apart their prey piece by piece.
08:55They predominantly hunt fish, but they will eat the meat of almost any animal that crosses their path.
09:01And in this river, with almost every cast, I'm catching a piranha.
09:16This river is just absolutely full of piranhas. They're just all over the place.
09:23It doesn't mean to say, though, that I can't do this.
09:34Surely swimming in a piranha-infested river is suicide.
09:38I'm on a mission to find out if the bloodthirsty reputation of the piranha is justified.
09:55But if I'm going to truly test how aggressive it is, then I'm going to have to be a human guinea pig.
10:03This water may be full of piranhas, but they're not attacking me.
10:14If I can swim here, and it's true that the old man from the fish market story and the victims of the bus crash were eaten alive,
10:22then something is missing that is needed to trigger a feeding frenzy.
10:26They're still alive.
10:29There's plenty of water here. I'm guessing there's enough food for them down there without them wanting to attack me.
10:36So what about if I set something up where I know there are plenty of piranhas, and I know they're hungry?
10:42Welcome to my piranha pool.
10:57Here at a local hotel, just like my favourite Bond villain, I've filled a small swimming pool with over a hundred red-bellied piranhas,
11:05and they haven't eaten for days. It's the perfect opportunity to test just how voracious these creatures are.
11:15Everybody knows about sharks being bloodthirsty killers. Just wondering if piranhas have the same kind of sensitivity to blood.
11:22Piranhas have evolved to live in the murky, sediment-filled waters of the Amazon, where visibility is often less than a foot.
11:40So a good sense of smell to locate their next meal is surely essential.
11:44That's definitely getting a reaction. There's a number of fish have come into that cloud of blood, and they're looking around.
11:50They want something to chew into, but there's nothing there at the moment.
11:53I think time to put a bit of flesh in there for them.
11:56So blood is definitely wetting their appetite.
12:00And there would have been blood in the water from those injured by the impact of the bus crash.
12:05Now, I wonder how these piranhas will react to a bloody piece of prime steak.
12:14There we go. It's the first nibble, the first nibble, the first nibble.
12:23And there they are. They're all piling in.
12:25Once the first one's started, there we go, all over it.
12:28Piranhas react to the sound and movement of another piranha feeding, attracting them to the scene and inciting the feeding frenzy.
12:36As soon as one piranha takes a bite, it moves away, allowing a fast turnover of feeders and a rapid succession of bites.
12:42It's no wonder they are known for stripping their food to the bone in just minutes.
12:48There we go. Meat definitely works.
12:50I just wonder now how they might react to something that's alive.
12:53These piranhas were tearing into a piece of dead meat just a couple of minutes ago.
12:56But they're just not interested in me.
12:57So, these piranhas were tearing into a piece of dead meat just a couple of minutes ago, but they're just not interested in me.
12:59So, what is it that turns piranhas into vicious piranhas?
13:02These piranhas were tearing into a piece of dead meat just a couple of minutes ago, but they're just not interested in me.
13:12So, what is it that turns piranhas into vicious murderous killers? That is what I want to try and find out.
13:30If the story of the bus crash is true, then presumably, just like my piranha pool, there was human flesh, blood and a mass of hungry piranhas.
13:45Yet I am unharmed. The people on the bus weren't so lucky.
13:49As I continue my investigation, I discover the evidence to prove that the bus crash definitely happened.
13:57But more significantly, I tracked down a survivor who had an unbelievable escape from that day.
14:03Maybe he can give me the details of exactly what happened, so I can work out what triggers a piranha attack.
14:13How did US President Teddy Roosevelt describe piranhas?
14:16Was it the most ferocious fish in the world, an interesting creature worthy of study, or a harmless, misunderstood fish?
14:33US President Teddy Roosevelt described piranhas as the most ferocious fish in the world.
14:39After a trip to the Amazon, he said they were the embodiment of evil ferocity.
14:46I've come to the Amazon to find out if piranhas are the bloodthirsty killers of myth, or if the truth is a little more complicated.
14:59I've managed to unearth a newspaper report from the 1970s that describes the exact bus crash that I remember, where some of the passengers were eaten by piranhas.
15:09It reports that on the 14th of November 1976, the bus was travelling from Manaus to the town of Itaquatiara, a journey for about five hours.
15:21After driving through the night, it crashed into a tributary of the Amazon, killing 39 passengers.
15:31The newspaper also mentions the name of a survivor, Deseo Araujo.
15:36I've managed to track him down to find out what he can remember from that fateful day, as this might allow me to pass judgement on the guilt, or otherwise, of the piranha.
15:47Deseo tells me he was sitting at the very rear of the bus, and like the rest of the passengers, he had been sleeping for most of the journey.
15:58On board that day were several families, a couple of students named Alex and Ivan, as well as many other men and women returning to their homes in Itaquatiara.
16:07Not long before the accident, the bus went through a pothole, waking Deseo up. This, he tells me, could well have saved his life.
16:18This is the very spot where the accident happened. The bus came down here, went in the river down there.
16:29Deseo doesn't know if the brakes failed, or if the bus skidded, but the driver had done the same route several times that day.
16:38The papers at the time reported the suggestion that he fell asleep, and at the ferry crossing carried straight on into the river.
16:44One minute, everything's normal, but, you know, literally the next moment is in the water. There were people crying, wailing, much despair.
17:02There were people at the front trying to open the door by pulling it, and he's basically saying that, you know, that that door only opens if you push.
17:19Then the water, the water started to come in, at which point he went back to where he'd been seated.
17:29There was a boy there who'd been trying to break the window, and he actually saw Deseo saw this boy's foot, you know, disappearing out of the bus.
17:38And he saw the foot, followed it, and managed to get himself out through the same hole.
17:43He's just about clear of the bus. Somebody grabbed hold of his leg. Can you imagine? Somebody is trying to grab hold of his leg while he is trying to escape and get to the surface.
18:01She had to kick this person's hand off to get free from the bus, and actually, you know, escape from the wreck.
18:07Thirty-nine people remained trapped on the bus and didn't survive.
18:13In the panic of his escape, Deseo doesn't remember seeing any piranhas.
18:18So no one knows how long it was after the bus submerged that the piranhas attacked.
18:25Even to this day, just going over the bridge, which they've got now over the river, he says every time he crosses, you know, he just remembers that day.
18:46It was several hours before rescuers could winch the bus out of the water. By that time, it was far too late for any remaining passengers.
18:59There were three children and one baby, actually all from the same family. They were brought up dead.
19:12There was one body there that had literally been stripped of all the flesh, only the boots were left.
19:24The impact piranhas have on a human body is distinct and may be too shocking for some viewers to see.
19:31These horrific images from recent cases arriving at the Manaus city morgue show just what a piranha is capable of doing and the type of wounds it leaves.
19:48Exposed flesh and soft tissue are removed first, which is exactly what Dora de Barbosa witnessed when she arrived on the scene as the bodies were being extracted from the bus.
19:58She told me that some of the victims were brought out still hugging each other and her story made me truly realize what it meant to lose someone in this crash.
20:12Dora was just 17 years old at the time of the tragedy and what happened she was living in Nitaquatiara and she just actually started her nurse training at the time and so she actually went to the river at the site of the accident.
20:28It was totally the face. There was nothing on the face. It was just the ears.
20:38Dora says she did know some of the people on the bus which just makes it sort of extra, extra horrific really that was the husband of a teacher of hers and she says that he was just, you know, his face was completely eaten away down to, you know, not down to the bone but down to cartilage.
21:01There was also Ivan. Ivan was a person that I liked at the time. I was passionate about him.
21:08And also a lad called Ivan who she liked very much. This was her childhood sweetheart and he was one of the victims as well and she said, you know, because of this she found it very difficult early on to talk about this whole business but as a result of this she said she actually, you know, left the area and didn't return for a while because of the memories of the place.
21:31Just like the testimonies from the bus crash, the morgue pictures leave us in no doubt as to the horrors piranhas can inflict on a human body.
21:40But as the bus crash happened 30 years ago, it's impossible to know if the victims died of the wounds inflicted by the piranhas or if they were already dead.
21:49We know that on the bus they were trapped, there was blood in the water and people were eaten by piranhas. But did the piranhas attack and eat their victims alive or did they merely scavenge the corpses of those who had already drowned?
22:06So even though I have found my bus crash, the case against the piranha still hangs in the balance. However, I have uncovered a situation in the east of the Amazon where at the end of the dry season of 2005, eight piranha attacks occurred in just one weekend on one beach. And these victims were definitely alive when the piranhas struck.
22:31My quest to investigate the bloodthirsty reputation of the piranha is still unresolved. Although piranhas have without doubt fed on dead human flesh, I'm yet to find proof that they have killed a living human. Maybe Brian Zimmerman was right.
22:54I don't think the reputation of piranhas as bloodthirsty monsters is deserved at all. Piranha are just animal that is trying to survive in the wild when they happen to be a carnivorous fish.
23:08Yet in flooded water bodies like this, scientists have discovered that there are double the number of piranhas than normal. And this has led to a situation where their innocence is once again in question.
23:21All over Brazil, dams like this have created artificial lakes, which are very popular places to come for a swim, particularly in the heat of the dry season. Put that together with a concentrated population of piranhas and you're asking for trouble.
23:37Humans being attacked by man-eating fish is the stuff of nightmares. And it has fueled an industry of fear, which Hollywood has happily embraced. If you're on a beach by the ocean, sharks can be a very real concern.
23:56It's not uncommon to enter the water with a fear of what might lurk beneath.
24:03But deep inland, over a thousand miles from the sea, most people would not expect to be a victim.
24:15Yet on the weekend of December the 21st, 2005, at the end of the dry season, this is exactly what happened.
24:26On a beach exposed by the seasonal low water, eight people were attacked.
24:38And the perpetrators of these attacks were piranhas.
24:51In a period of seven months, 190 people were bitten by piranhas.
25:14Unlike the bus crash, these weren't frenzied attacks, which left the corpses half-eaten. These were individual bites.
25:23No one was trapped, injured or bleeding. Yet the piranhas were definitely attacking live people.
25:30Obviously something strange had occurred here.
25:33I've come to one of these artificial lakes created by a dam to find out what's going on and to see what kind of piranhas are living here.
25:45All this used to be rainforests, but when the water rose, the trees all died, just leaving this weird landscape.
25:52There we go, there's a knot, there's something on there.
26:08Right, here we go, here we go.
26:11There we go, that, that's a sizable fish.
26:14That's a piranha, but that is a big piranha.
26:17Now, this is something I've got to be very careful with.
26:20Careful, careful, careful, careful, careful.
26:24And here it is.
26:26Imagine swimming with these boys in the water.
26:30Oh, crunch!
26:34Oh! Crunching on the hook as I take it out.
26:38How about that?
26:41For a piranha.
26:44This is a black piranha. It's the biggest species of piranha.
26:47Look at those teeth. Look at those teeth.
26:51I'm being extremely careful here.
26:53They just have such powerful jaws.
26:54I mean, that would take a serious size lump out of it.
26:57Literally, the size of that jaw, that would be the size of the hole that would be missing.
27:02Those teeth are so sharp, that when people get cut by them, they say they don't even feel it when it happens.
27:09Only, they only notice it when they see the blood.
27:12It was these kinds of attacks, single bites, that were being made at the beach.
27:18But again, Brian's theory that piranhas are misunderstood has an explanation.
27:22Piranha tend to build their nests in very shallow areas because they need to have vegetation, not only for the eggs to stick to, but also for the young fry to retreat when they're first hatching.
27:34So in cases where people have been bitten, I mean, I suppose somebody wading in shallow water and happens to tread onto the nest of a piranha where there's a big male defending its eggs is definitely going to be susceptible to getting a bite.
27:50The beach attacks occurred when there were most people in the water on the hottest days at the end of the dry season.
27:59It is at this point, usually just after the first rains, when piranhas breed.
28:05All they were doing was simply what most living creatures do, protecting their young.
28:11So these multiple piranha attacks actually reveal a caring animal that in this instance has no intention to kill.
28:20Piranha are very nervous fish. We were actually involved in a study recently which was looking at the reasons for shoaling behavior in piranha.
28:33And the study actually found that instead of them being pack hunters and living together in groups because they're trying to hunt their prey,
28:41they actually live in shoals to avoid predators themselves and it's like a case of safety in numbers.
28:46If piranhas group together because of their mortal fear of another river monster, then this is a creature I need to meet.
28:53What else could be down there that could be even fiercer, even more carnivorous than the flesh-eating piranha?
29:00Piranha's may enjoy a reputation as evil killers, but here in the Amazon they are far from the top of the food chain.
29:18Piranhas may enjoy a reputation as evil killers, but here in the Amazon they are
29:24far from the top of the food chain. This river is a supremely predatory
29:29environment and I'm told that there are wild river monsters that come here to be
29:34fed by locals.
29:39These creatures are highly adapted killers and greatly feared by the
29:44piranhas.
29:48And once again, I'm the guinea pig that is entering the water to meet them.
30:07Dolphins. Who'd have thought it? A thousand miles from the ocean, right up the Amazon River.
30:14Freshwater dolphins.
30:18And these guys, I mean, they're having fun now, but my goodness, they've also got a dark side.
30:25I'm in the middle of a frenzy. That one got my thumb. That one got my thumb. Oh dear. Hey!
30:32And these are the guys that take out piranhas. A little bit eager. A little bit eager. A
30:39the jaw, very, very long and elongated. Full of teeth, just perfect for grabbing fish.
30:46Wow!
30:47They've also got this really strange bulging head and that's actually
30:53an echolocation organ. A lot of these waters in the Amazon are very murky.
31:00And they can't see their prey. But even in that situation, they can bite and kill their prey.
31:07Oh! Using sonar.
31:14You know, you've got to be very, very careful tangling with these creatures.
31:21Time for me to get out, I think.
31:22Time for me to get out, I think.
31:28The Amazon is the most predator-filled waterway on the planet.
31:35You know, you've got to be very, very careful tangling with these creatures.
31:47Time for me to get out, I think.
31:54The Amazon is the most predator-filled waterway on the planet.
31:59Everything kills or is killed.
32:01I've spent years fishing this river, and I know it is crammed full of the meanest, nastiest creatures.
32:11Perhaps piranhas are not unusual.
32:14They just get singled out for attention because they capture our imagination.
32:18But that still doesn't explain what triggers their attacks.
32:31It's strong and heavy.
32:34Look at this!
32:36Bye, bye, bye, bye.
32:49Kuyu-kuyu.
32:49Kuyu, a new species for me.
32:52I know the species, but I've never, never, never caught one.
32:58There's a lump taken out of it by piranha.
33:00They can tell when a fish is in distress, and they go after it.
33:03You can actually see the shape here of a piranha jaw.
33:07Something chomped this fish on the way in.
33:09You know, normally these fish are paying complete attention to not ending up on the menu.
33:15This one, basically thinking about something else for just a moment, and a piranha came in and chopped it.
33:20So you've literally got to watch your back.
33:25This armoured catfish was a fantastic catch, but seeing the piranha bite on its back has crystallised everything for me.
33:32This fish lives in and amongst piranha every day of its life.
33:39Yet struggling on the end of my line, it instantly became a target.
33:45It is the thrashing struggle of distress that triggers the piranha's natural instincts to target the weak and helpless.
33:53This explains why I can swim and splash around with piranhas.
33:57Yet the struggle for life in the bus crash initiated the piranha's predatory instincts.
34:02It is sobering to think of what happened to those poor passengers that day as they travelled back to their home town.
34:14Their lives were never meant to cross with piranhas.
34:17Yet for thousands of people in the Amazon, life is literally lived on the water.
34:24With such huge seasonal variations in water level, entire villages float on the river.
34:29And there's one whose very name suggests the reality they deal with on a daily basis.
34:38This place is known as the Piranha Reserve.
34:41I've come here to find out what life is like living with the constant threat of piranhas.
34:55These people are known as riverinos, or river people.
35:00Almost everything they need is sourced from or around the Amazon River.
35:04Let's see if the piranha reserve lives up to its name, and what kind of piranhas they have here.
35:18The line is flat on the surface.
35:23There we go.
35:24Now, right, you can see why people, I couldn't do that if I didn't have shoes on.
35:35You can see why so many people here are missing bits out of their toes.
35:38Every one of these is a red-biddy.
35:43I mean, this one's got slight spots on it as well, but that just means it's a juvenile.
35:47Again, again, here we go.
35:48There's almost more fish than water.
35:50Every single chuck, out comes a red-biddy piranha.
35:53They're not very big, but my goodness, there are just loads of them down here.
35:56I've heard all these stories about piranhas being capable of skeletonising bodies literally within moments or minutes.
36:10I've got this freshly killed duck here from the market, and I think it's time to put those stories to the test.
36:20It's apparent that the sound, the thrashing of a distressed animal is what attracts them,
36:25so I'm just... a little bit of movement to start them homing in.
36:31Right, they're in there. They're in there already.
36:33I just saw a flash of silver with that, you know, very distinctive red as well.
36:38Right, they're starting to arrive now.
36:39Once one finds it, basically, you know, that just kicks the whole thing off.
36:50Right, look at that.
36:51They're in the head there.
36:51They've already just stripped the, uh, all the flesh from the spine.
37:02Flip this in and have a look.
37:07Oh.
37:09Right.
37:09From the back, this didn't look too bad, but actually flip it over at the side where the fish were,
37:14and, you know, they've made a real mess of that.
37:17They've actually chewed through a huge expanse of feather to get at the meat,
37:21and they've gone right into the body cavity.
37:23They've taken most of the meat away.
37:24There's a huge section of, actually, the backbone gone in the neck.
37:28The head is just reduced to bone.
37:30Both eyes are gone.
37:32And all this just in a matter of minutes.
37:41It's easy to forget that this is right outside someone's front door.
37:45For the people who live here, dealing with the dangers of piranhas on a daily basis is just part of life.
37:53Good morning.
37:54Good morning.
37:55Can I come?
37:55Good morning.
37:56I visit some of the families who live here to find out how they cope.
38:00But I discover a story of a piranha attack that chills me to my very bones.
38:20To find out what life is like for those living with piranhas,
38:23I've come to visit an Amazon village where dealing with these fearsome neighbours is a daily occurrence.
38:30This remote place is actually called the Piranha Reserve.
38:40But what I soon learn is that it is in the dry season,
38:43when the water is low and the piranhas are concentrated,
38:46that the villagers are most at risk.
38:48It is a particular time of year.
38:50It's principally the months of September and October here.
38:52You can't even get in the water to have a wash.
38:59Main food item here is fish.
39:01So there you are.
39:02You have to clean the fish in order to prepare it for the meal.
39:04And just the smell of that will bring a concentration of piranhas there.
39:09So you've got to be careful.
39:10Keep your fingers nowhere near the water.
39:12But on one occasion, this family dropped their guard with horrific consequences.
39:18It was a grandson of Julius.
39:25It was a grandson of Julius.
39:27My husband.
39:27Yes.
39:28You know, you can't look after kids all the time.
39:30His wife was cleaning some fish off the back of the house.
39:34And the child just ran, as children do, from one side of the house to the other,
39:38and fell in the water the other side.
39:40And he said, literally, you know, they heard a noise.
39:42They got there.
39:43It was already too late.
39:45The child fell in the water and just didn't come up.
39:58All they said that they saw was just a turbulence in the water of the piranhas devouring the child,
40:05just literally moments after the child had fallen off the side of the boat.
40:09With nets, they were trying to sort of, you know, retrieve the child,
40:18even while this was going on.
40:19And eventually, he said, you know, all they got in was bones.
40:25When I asked how long it took, he said, no, you know, this happened very rapidly
40:29because, you know, there were just, you know, so many, so many piranhas here.
40:33This is what I'd been searching for,
40:40a first-hand account of piranhas attacking, killing and eating a human.
40:46In this case, a three-year-old boy who the grandfather preferred not to name.
40:52Yet the reality of hearing a story like this
40:55takes away all feelings of success I might have had.
40:58It's one thing to hear the myth of piranhas,
41:02but, I mean, you know, it's quite something else to talk to somebody
41:05who's actually seen the truth of that with their own eyes.
41:11If you consider that this is just one of hundreds or even thousands
41:15of similar isolated settlements found all along the Amazon,
41:19who knows how many more cases remain unreported?
41:23These lads are just, you know, they're just balancing on pieces of wood
41:32about that wide, and I've just heard this horrific story
41:35about somebody falling into this water
41:36and getting just devoured in seconds,
41:39and they don't even seem bothered by it.
41:42Much as we might live with the ever-present threat
41:44of a lethal highway on our doorstep,
41:47these people continue their lives within feet of deadly piranhas.
41:53You know, I guess, like a lot of things,
41:56you know, living in a floating house like this
41:58with these piranhas underneath,
42:00after a while, it's just there, it's just automatic.
42:02You just get used to it.
42:03There are just precautions that you take.
42:05You can't be thinking about it all the time if you were.
42:08You just wouldn't be able to get on with your life.
42:09It's just this ever-present presence underneath and all around you.
42:17I set out on this journey to find an eyewitness to a piranha attack
42:21in the hope that their evidence might give me the proof I needed
42:25to know if the bloodthirsty reputation of the piranha is justified.
42:30I've found that piranhas are sometimes shy, sometimes defensive,
42:34and they are somewhat misunderstood.
42:36But if you have a very specific combination
42:39of the right time of year, blood, the struggle of distress,
42:44and a trapped or weakened person,
42:46you will trigger a piranha-feeding frenzy.
42:50In a river full of monsters,
42:52this is just a natural adaptation to life here in the Amazon.
42:56But no matter what,
42:58the piranha will continue to evoke fear and horror
43:02in each and every one of us.
43:06Want more of the world's wildest, strangest,
43:09and most terrifying freshwater horrors?
43:12Visit our website at animalplanet.com slash rivermonsters.
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