- 7 weeks ago
- #rivermonsters
Documentary, River Monsters S03E01 The Mutilator
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00:00Animal Planet, surprisingly human.
00:08Papua New Guinea, a land renowned for cannibalism, macabre rituals, headhunters, and bitter tribal conflict.
00:17But now, something new is ripping through the heart of this island.
00:21A creature that is tearing chunks from unsuspecting fishermen, devouring certain body parts.
00:30My name is Jeremy Wade, biologist and extreme fisherman.
00:35I've spent my life searching for freshwater monsters.
00:40I'm heading to Papua New Guinea to find out what has acquired the taste for one particular part of the human body.
01:00Details about the attacks are unclear.
01:03All I have to go on are a few sketchy reports from newspapers and the internet.
01:08The incidents first surfaced in the Australian press, which reported two separate but very similar fatal attacks in the Sepik River in the remote northern region of Papua New Guinea.
01:19Patrick Moe had just returned from a long day on the water.
01:25He was bathing in the river margins right in front of his house when it struck.
01:33He was hit by a powerful lone hunter.
01:36A fast swimmer with jaws like a vice that ripped and tore his flesh.
01:43Moe had a certain body part bitten off.
01:48As a result of which he bled to death.
01:50The second attack was eerily similar.
02:02Francis Sambin went to the river to wash dishes and cool off.
02:07Something he had done countless times before.
02:11But this time it was to be very different.
02:15This time he would not be going home.
02:17I've tracked freshwater killers all over the world, but this is my first visit to Papua New Guinea, which lies north of Australia, where the Coral Sea meets the South Pacific.
02:42It is one of the most dramatic and untouched islands anywhere on Earth.
02:56Despite more than 50,000 years of human habitation, this landscape has changed little since prehistoric times.
03:04Much remains unexplored.
03:07New species are regularly discovered.
03:08So is the river Kila a new arrival, or has it been hiding away for centuries?
03:14It is only now that I begin to realise the sheer size of this island, and the remoteness of the area where I'm heading.
03:28There's just an awful lot of forest out there.
03:33I'm used to flying over forests in the Amazon, but this is very different.
03:36While the Amazon tends to be very flat, most of it, here we're talking serious mountains, and just completely cloaked in greenery.
03:43And the other thing is, in the Amazon, if you look carefully, you can see buildings down there.
03:48You can see tin roofs occasionally glinting back at you, and clearings in the trees.
03:52But here, just none of that at all.
03:54It appears to be completely uninhabited down there.
03:57These steep-sided mountains and impenetrable forests led to isolation and diversity among its plants and animals,
04:06and suspicion and bitter tribal conflict between its people.
04:12Tribal fighting still exists in the less accessible mountain regions.
04:16But right now, it is the water level that concerns me.
04:25We're now approaching the floodplain of the Seapik River, and there's a lot of water there.
04:31I mean, this is supposed to be now into the dry season, but I'm still seeing lots of water,
04:36not just confined in the banks of the river, but spreading throughout the landscape.
04:40And the fish and everything else in the water are going to be very spread out,
04:44and it's going to make my job pretty difficult.
04:52Rising in the central mountains, the Seapik River snakes for over 700 miles through impenetrable forest.
04:59This is one of the last great unexplored rivers.
05:03It is to Papua New Guinea what the Congo is to Africa, and the Amazon is to South America.
05:08After four flights, 48 hours, and 9,000 miles, I arrive in Ambunti,
05:15in the remote northwest corner of the country.
05:19I've never been here before, so I'm not too sure what I'm getting into.
05:24There's no roads here, so I think there's stuff coming out of the plane now,
05:29and then it's onto the water.
05:30My base for the next two weeks is a village deep in the heart of the forest.
05:40These tribes are cut off from the outside world.
05:44The only way in or out is along this river.
05:50Little has changed here for centuries.
05:53Their culture is rich in superstition, myths, and mystery.
06:00And they are notoriously wary of outsiders.
06:05I'm met by one of the elders.
06:08I sent word of my intended visit many months ago.
06:12Turning up unannounced is not taken kindly.
06:14I do my best to smile and look friendly.
06:21But I'm not getting much reaction.
06:28So this is the spirit house?
06:30Yes.
06:31This was once the site of human sacrifice and even cannibalism.
06:44Now, it is the place of worship and ceremony and where outsiders are called when they visit.
06:53But I'm not too sure how welcome I am.
06:58I've been hearing stories about something in the water attacking people.
07:07Is this something that you know anything about?
07:14Yes.
07:21So what is happening?
07:26There are over 700 languages in Papua New Guinea, but the trade language common to all is pidgin.
07:37They also understand a little English.
07:39The thing about pidgin is that there are English words that are recognisable.
07:44And in the middle of that was a phrase, a ball cutter.
07:51There's something in the water called a ball cutter.
07:53And this does agree very much with the stories that I've heard.
07:59People have been coming out of the water with injured genitals.
08:05It's interesting.
08:06You know, the first place that I've asked, yes, yes, we know about this.
08:09This is, this is, there is something dangerous in the water.
08:12So is these, these, these injuries, people being attacked, is, is this something that has happened here?
08:21So it sounds like this is something they've heard about here, but nobody here has actually been attacked, or at least not yet anyway.
08:31And they're saying the stories, coupled with the name of this, this animal, the ball cutter, you know, it is something that they are afraid of.
08:37They're very worried about, particularly mothers are very concerned, but their children are very careful in the water.
08:45For villagers living here, avoiding the river is virtually impossible.
08:50Their lives revolve around it.
08:54Now, somewhere down there is a creature with teeth sharp enough to emasculate a man, causing him to bleed to death in minutes.
09:04I've investigated similar incidents before.
09:08Fish on! Look at that!
09:13In central Africa, I caught a goliath tigerfish, a species that has attacked and killed people in the Congo River.
09:22All we've got to worry about now, is it biting its way out?
09:28But that is 9,000 miles away, and goliaths are not found around here.
09:32The village elders told me that none of the native fish species would be capable of inflicting such horrific injuries.
09:44But something out there is responsible for these fierce attacks, and I've no idea what it could be.
09:50I've not been here before, so I don't know what fish I'm likely to catch.
10:07But what I'll probably do, I'll probably start off light, some light line, little hook, and a small bit of bait, and try and catch some small fish.
10:16That will start to give me a picture of what's down there.
10:18And then what I'll do, I will try and move on to fish further up the food chain that are feeding on those little fish.
10:25And to catch the predators, well, I've got a selection of artificial lures, which resemble small fish.
10:32But I might also just put a bit of dead fish on my line.
10:37I've got some bigger hooks for that.
10:39And because predators are very likely to have teeth, I've got some wire along as well.
10:45So basically, I've just got a bag of bits, and I'll sort of make it up as I go along.
10:49But starting with the small ones, and gradually working my way up the food chain.
10:55I've not been able to find out exactly where the attacks took place.
11:00But I do know that they occurred close to a village.
11:03So that is where I begin.
11:05A bit of coconut as bait.
11:09The villagers have told me that the fish around here find coconut irresistible.
11:14I'm fishing right in front of the houses.
11:16Two reasons, really.
11:16Fish often come very close to where people are, simply because that's where people wash their dishes, all that kind of thing.
11:22Also, shallow water fish, contrary to popular belief, tend to be found very often in shallows rather than in the deep.
11:29There's more light there, therefore there's more vegetation, therefore there's more food.
11:35And in no time at all, I get a bite.
11:39Oh!
11:41That's taken mine off the clutch.
11:45Strong, strong fish.
11:46Oh!
11:48Oh!
11:52Let's have a look.
11:53Something's actually...
11:55That didn't break the line.
11:56I wasn't putting that much pressure on that.
11:59That's...
11:59No, that has actually cut it.
12:01Something down there has cut the line.
12:07That's interesting.
12:08I was fishing very, very close to the side, and there's something down there with teeth.
12:10What's interesting, though, it actually took a bit of coconut, so you've got a vegetarian with teeth.
12:21My first piece of evidence.
12:24And now, I've received word there's an attack victim in a nearby village.
12:30Could this be the clue I need?
12:32I'm on the trail of a river creature that has been attacking the genitals of fishermen.
12:50Word has reached me of an incident in a nearby village.
12:57Ramzin Tero was attacked while paddling his canoe.
13:00But his attacker wasn't a fish.
13:04It was a 20-foot crocodile.
13:07So what happened was that Ramzin was collecting palm fronds for roofing his house.
13:14And the first thing he knows is that a crocodile has actually come from underneath.
13:25He didn't see the body of the crocodile, but just came along and just crunched one end of the boat.
13:30The size of the crocodile's jaws were more or less the length of his arm.
13:36He said he could have actually put his arm right down its throat.
13:39That was the size of it.
13:40And at that point, he's thinking, well, how do I get out of this?
13:46Ramzin sat it out in the tree
13:48until the croc eventually lost interest
13:52and he was able to get away on his broken canoe.
13:57He was lucky.
14:04Over the years, dozens of people have been killed by crocodiles in the Sepik River.
14:08This skin came from a 20-foot monster said to have learned to flip over canoes.
14:17Sepik River crocodiles certainly have a history of killing.
14:21But are they the ball cutter I'm looking for?
14:24The elders told me they doubt the native fish species here are capable of inflicting these injuries.
14:32But something did bite through my line, so I have to keep an open mind.
14:38I head out with Alphonse Mavassanye, a fisherman and crocodile specialist,
14:42to see if somehow a crocodile could be responsible for these unusual mutilations.
14:50He has brought me to the same area where Ramzin was attacked.
14:55Alphonse is actually going to try and call this crocodile to us.
15:05The splashing mimics the sound of a large crocodile moving quickly through the water.
15:12The call, that of a young one.
15:19Both sounds should attract crocodiles to us.
15:27Ramzin described the croc that attacked him as being over 20 feet long.
15:34But they kill by ripping and spinning, tearing at flesh and devouring huge chunks at a time.
15:42So it is unlikely that a large croc would only attack the genitals.
15:48But could it be a smaller one?
15:50Or is something else lurking down there?
15:58Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:00Can see the eyes.
16:02Just on the edge of this bit of vegetation here.
16:06About 20, 30 yards in front of the boat.
16:11Dense floating islands of vegetation.
16:14Perfect crocodile habitat.
16:16It's right in the vegetation.
16:35They can stay submerged for over an hour.
16:40We don't know they're there until they attack.
16:51Each time we spot one, it spooks and disappears.
16:55They seem very wary.
17:00But eventually Alphonse grabs a baby one.
17:03I can't be certain that crocs are not responsible for the attacks.
17:32But Alphonse tells me that they're rarely seen near villages now.
17:36And both the genital attacks occurred close to the victims' houses.
17:41I think something else in this water has a taste for human flesh.
17:46We saw one crocodile tonight.
17:47I suppose an animal about eight or ten foot, something like that, judging by the amount
17:51of light coming back from the eyes.
17:53Other than that, it's just been small ones.
17:57And I suppose in one sense, a bit of a relief not to come across the big one.
18:02But in another sense, I'm quite disappointed and also surprised that we haven't seen more
18:09crocodiles tonight.
18:12Alphonse tells me that in recent years crocodile numbers are down.
18:17It is only in the past few years that the attacks on people have occurred.
18:22Could it be that whatever is attacking the fishermen is also attacking the crocodiles?
18:35I once caught a species of fish capable of biting chunks out of crocodiles.
18:41Find out what it is right after this.
18:48The Goliath Tigerfish from the Congo River in Africa has been known to bite chunks out
18:52of ten foot crocodiles.
19:03I'm on the Seapic River in a remote part of Papua New Guinea, 9,000 miles from home, on
19:09the trail of a creature that is attacking unsuspecting fishermen.
19:12Blimey!
19:15Strong, strong fish.
19:16I can hardly believe my eyes when I see what is on the end of my line.
19:20Oh!
19:21Looks like a piranha.
19:29That has got teeth.
19:31But they're not piranha teeth.
19:33Unless I'm very much mistaken, that looks like a fish that I know from the Amazon called
19:36a paku.
19:37And the thing that gives it away is looking at the teeth.
19:39They're not cutting teeth, they are grinding teeth.
19:43I actually had my line cut a few days ago.
19:46by a mystery fish here in the lakeside.
19:49And actually seeing this now, I think this is what it could be.
19:51Although they're grinding teeth, they have got quite sharp ridges on.
19:55And I think this is what it could have been.
19:58Unlike a piranha, these teeth are not designed for slicing through flesh.
20:01They are primarily vegetarian.
20:04They feed on things like nuts that fall in the water.
20:08So, a very interesting catch, but I don't think this is actually the fish that I'm after.
20:18But what's it doing here?
20:23The paku is typically found on the other side of the world, in South America, and doesn't
20:30belong in the seapik.
20:32Puzzled, I meet up with Alphonse again.
20:35I just wondered if you can tell me what this fish is doing here.
20:39We should be people, we also, we were surprised to see this fish.
20:44But we asked the fish these people and they said they produce this fish in the river.
20:50What, you say produce, it was put here?
20:52Yeah, it was put here 15 years ago.
20:56So this was, it's a new fish to give, what, to give people something else to eat?
21:01Yeah, yeah, because there's no enough fish in the river, maybe this is the way they put
21:07these species here.
21:09I've investigated introduced species before and know the devastating impact they can have
21:18on a river.
21:19Absolutely stiff with fish.
21:21In the US, silver carp escaped from a fish farm.
21:26Their numbers exploded, and they now dominate entire stretches of the Illinois River.
21:30Actually feel the boat being buffeted as they're banging into it.
21:36The Wells catfish was moved from the cold rivers of Northern Europe to the warm, rich waters
21:41of Spain, where they grew into monsters.
21:45With no natural predators and ample food, both species have run amok, upsetting the natural
21:51balance.
21:58So could something like this now be happening in the Seapic River?
22:04Word of my quest is spreading through the nearby villages.
22:07I've been told of a fisherman named Nick Sakat, who was savaged by something in the river, which
22:14wasn't a crocodile.
22:15I was walking, I was cutting the grass, and I woke up to cool my body.
22:21I was just deep of water.
22:22Then I put something pumping onto my leg, and I was thinking, what's happening?
22:27I pulled my leg up.
22:28I pulled my leg up, but it was coming up again, and hit my leg.
22:33It's like human beings did, biting onto my leg.
22:40And I pulled my leg down to the water.
22:48Then I swim up and struggle.
22:49The pain was very big.
22:54And then what you saw, the size of the bite, that was also similar to human teeth.
23:00Yes.
23:01So it looks like a person has bitten your foot.
23:02Yes.
23:03What are you thinking is down in the water?
23:07I was thinking that maybe the spirit, the spirit of the water.
23:28Whatever is down there is not only fast and ferocious, it's also powerful.
23:33The village elders told me that there were only a handful of fish species out there, none
23:43of them capable of carrying out such an attack.
23:54I head out further from the village, along smaller tributaries.
23:58There has been so little exploration out here, that new species are regularly discovered.
24:05Could it be that something unknown to science is responsible for these attacks?
24:09There's something in the water here that's actually attacking people.
24:11So what I'm doing now, I'm fishing to see if there's anything predatory down there.
24:15I'm putting a lure on, and what that will do, that will flash and wobble, vibrate.
24:21And that's the kind of movement that could get a reflex grab.
24:25So something with teeth is likely to go after this.
24:30I change locations and try different lures, but the result is always the same.
24:49I'm just not getting any interest at all.
24:56If this was an Amazon lake, a lake where you didn't have lots of commercial fishing, then
25:01I'd expect maybe four or five different species.
25:05Certainly some hits, but just nothing at all.
25:07So it just points to the fact that there's not a great deal in the way of predatory fish
25:12in these waters.
25:14Having drawn a blank in the flooded forest,
25:20as evening closes in, I head back towards the village.
25:23Each of the attacks occurred close to where people live,
25:27and the creature has clearly acquired the taste for flesh.
25:31So what I need is a bait that tastes just like human.
25:35And considering their cannibalistic past, there are many people here who know just the thing.
25:44I'm in Papua New Guinea, searching for the perfect bait to catch a creature known locally as the ball cutter,
25:58because of its liking for a particular part of the male anatomy.
26:03In the days when the tribe's people here were cannibalistic, they called human flesh long pig,
26:10because the meat tasted so much like pork.
26:15So that is what I will use.
26:18That's obviously something that a predator would be interested in,
26:21but also with moving water here, what that will do,
26:25that will send a nice oily trail down current.
26:28So not just anything here, but if there's anything downstream,
26:30they might sniff that and move up and investigate.
26:33There it is.
26:49This looks like a paku.
26:50This is interesting, because this was on a piece of meat.
26:53So this supposedly vegetarian fish has just broken that habit.
27:00This paku, the piranha's vegetarian relative, seems to like the taste of flesh.
27:10There we go.
27:13So much for the vegetarian paku.
27:16If the paku are eating pork, then they could just as easily go for human flesh.
27:31So are they now taking on the behaviour of their deadly relative, the piranha?
27:36I'm thinking that maybe I might have dismissed the paku
27:38as the possible perpetrator of these attacks too soon.
27:42In its normal habitat, the Amazon is a vegetarian,
27:45but it certainly has the weaponry to inflict serious damage on flesh.
27:50All it would need would be a motive.
27:52Now, if it turns out that there is not enough of its normal kind of food here,
27:57then it's going to do what any animal would do in that situation,
28:00which is to eat anything it can find in order to survive.
28:05Where piranhas are concerned, small means deadly.
28:08But paku can grow much bigger.
28:11Here in Papua New Guinea, there's virtually no commercial fishing.
28:14And there's also very little under the water in the way of predators.
28:17So it's quite possible that after only 15 years,
28:20you'd find a bigger paku living here than anything you'd find in the Amazon.
28:25So is this yet another example of an introduction gone wrong?
28:32Especially as the attacks only started after the paku's arrival in the Seapic River.
28:41In their native South America, there are 12 or more fish species that share the common name paku.
28:46The one that has been introduced into Papua New Guinea is among the largest.
28:52When young, this paku mimics the red-bellied piranha.
28:56But as they grow, they lose their red coloration and transform into formidable beasts.
29:02Paku are armed with jaws powerful enough to crush the hard nuts that fall from trees.
29:09These jaws are more than capable of ripping through soft human tissue.
29:13If it were to resort to piranha-type behavior, this river system would be forever transformed.
29:20A vegetarian-turned-carnivore may be scientifically shocking, but out here, transformation is a way of life.
29:37Tribespeople turn themselves into mythical beasts and carry out elaborate hypnotic dances
29:43to ward off evil or appease the river spirits when they are in trouble.
29:48Tribespeople turn themselves into the sea.
29:51Tribespeople turn themselves into the sea.
30:00Boys all along the Seapic River are transformed into men through bloodletting,
30:05by having the skin on their chests and backs cut,
30:08leaving scars said to be the teeth marks of crocodiles.
30:13And now, if my hunch is correct,
30:15the Paku is also undergoing a transformation,
30:18from harmless vegetarian to flesh-eating river monster.
30:26Now, my focus is catching a Paku capable of killing a man.
30:31At the village, I meet up with Alphonse.
30:34He tells me that since their introduction,
30:36the Paku have been devastating the river system.
30:38You can see this lake here have just nothing now.
30:43Everything is gone.
30:47Big vegetation and floating mud.
30:49It's gone by this fish.
30:53So you're saying that before the Paku was here,
30:57this whole area, even in the high water like now,
31:00was covered with floating weed, floating grass.
31:03Yeah, floating.
31:04Yeah.
31:05And that's now gone.
31:06It's creating more problems for our local fish also.
31:11Because grass is house for the fish and the crocodile
31:15and every animal in the water.
31:17Do the crocodiles have a problem with the Paku?
31:19Crocodiles have a big, big problem with the Paku now.
31:25The floating mud is where the crocodile makes nests.
31:29But you see that this big lake here is no floating mud.
31:34These floating islands are the remnants
31:36of what once covered the entire lake.
31:39The Paku are quite literally eating the native species
31:43of the Sepic River out of house and home.
31:45But it is not only the grass that they are eating.
31:51Some of them actually jump out of the water
31:54and the Paku eat it actually.
31:56Really?
31:57Yeah.
31:59You've seen that?
32:00Yeah, you've seen all the fish from this lake.
32:02The tale of destruction gets worse and worse.
32:05And also the Paku eat small fish.
32:08The Paku are eating fish.
32:10Really?
32:11They are attacking snakes as they swim across the surface.
32:13Snakes, water birds also.
32:16Even water birds aren't safe.
32:18So you've seen 50 pounds?
32:19Small ducks have been eaten as they paddle around.
32:22Duck actually.
32:23Duck actually also.
32:24Right.
32:25This Paku eat everything.
32:26Everything.
32:32The question is, does everything include
32:34a particular part of the male anatomy?
32:36To find out exactly what big Paku are capable of,
32:45I need to catch one.
32:47I'm going to head deep into the flooded forest,
32:50where it is said hostile spirits reside.
32:53I'm fishing the Seapic River in Papua New Guinea.
33:10On the trail of a river monster that has been inflicting terrible injuries on men's genitals.
33:21My prime suspect is the Paku.
33:25A vegetarian relative of the piranha that has developed a taste for meat.
33:30So far, I have concentrated my efforts close to the village, but only caught small specimens.
33:40So now I'm changing tack and heading deeper into the flooded forest.
33:44The Seapic River people are extremely superstitious,
33:51and believe that hostile spirits reside in the middle of these forests.
33:58For them, this is a menacing place.
34:03What we're doing is we're paddling very, very quietly through this area of flooded trees here.
34:10And there's some signs of fish, actually seen some fish actually chewing the ends of the weeds.
34:18And some fish actually swirling underneath these nut trees.
34:22So it's just moving slowly and just casting close under the trees.
34:28There are signs of Paku everywhere.
34:31The sound of fruit hitting the water alerts them, and they race in to eat it.
34:40Another catch, but the red coloration tells me that again it's a juvenile.
34:54Maybe I have to go further in.
35:02We're going in there.
35:04Although I find myself drawn into local superstition, I'm more concerned about what is lurking among the root tangles.
35:17The heat in here is overwhelming, and the trees cut out any breeze, so the humidity is oppressive.
35:23This is very different from fishing.
35:28By the village, I mean, there, it doesn't matter if you make a noise, they're used to the noise.
35:32Here, the only noise they are listening for is the sound of falling nuts.
35:36Anything else other than that is going to scare them away.
35:40I mean, personally, I really enjoy this sort of close quarters fishing,
35:45where you're relying on stealth to get close to the fish.
35:50You're not sort of making a lot of noise and just casting a long way.
35:54And the only way you can get a bait into these areas is by getting in close.
35:57Another catch, but this time the pull on the line suggests a larger paku.
36:15Not wanting to put my hands anywhere near those jaws, I use a long-handled grip to lift it out.
36:24They're getting bigger, getting bigger.
36:25The fish's muscular body makes it capable of bursts of speed.
36:30It could attack and make a quick getaway without being seen.
36:33That's not the size that I want to catch.
36:35I want to catch two, maybe three times the length of that.
36:40But that's good to see anyway.
36:50As evening rolls in, I head back to the village.
36:55Word has spread of my investigation, and a fisherman has come to see me.
37:05His name, Francis Sambin, is familiar.
37:11As he talks, I realise that this is the man the newspapers claim was killed by the bowl cutter.
37:17The stories that I heard, he didn't survive the encounter, but I'm very pleased to say that in reality, although this was a pretty terrifying experience by all accounts, he did actually live to tell the tale.
37:33Although the rumours of Sambin's death were exaggerated, the attack did leave him hospitalised and in agony.
37:42The fish was large and incredibly powerful.
37:47The bite was not a clean cut like a piranha's, but tore and ripped his flesh.
37:54And he struggled to fight it off.
37:56This echoes the story told to me by Nick Sarkat.
38:01I pulled my leg up, but it was coming again.
38:06I pulled my leg down to the water.
38:08This giant relative of the piranha is, as I thought, growing to quite a size and with teeth to match.
38:19I begin fishing again, now fully aware of the strength of this creature.
38:24But the difficulty will not be bringing it in or even landing it.
38:29What worries me most is getting close to those jaws.
38:38I'm on the Seapic River in Papua New Guinea, fishing for Paku.
38:48A relative of the piranha responsible for attacking and mutilating the genitals of fishermen.
38:56Yeah, yeah, bigger one, bigger one, bigger one.
38:58There it is. Look at that, it's really big, it's really big.
39:01This could be the one I've been looking for.
39:03I know there's snags on the bottom, so I'm trying to keep it away from that.
39:05Yeah, you can just see it. There's black water.
39:09You can just see it down there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:12Oh, yes.
39:14I need to just keep it away from stuff on the bottom, but there's also people's houses in the water.
39:19Just need to keep it away from that. At the moment it's in open water, that's good.
39:22I'll get it well and truly tied out before I try and do anything with this one.
39:27Then I need to examine it without losing a chunk of my hand.
39:32I don't want to rush it.
39:35Oh, that actually, just take a look at that. As I lifted it out, that straightened the hook as I lifted it out.
39:48Ooh.
39:50Now this is interesting because I've just been seeing small ones of these.
39:54That is, that's a different animal from what I have been catching. This is more of a size.
40:03Ooh. So the coloration on this is actually quite different from the small ones.
40:07The small ones have a very dramatic red belly, which on this, that's sort of faded away to this rather light orange.
40:13But the biggest difference is...
40:18Ah!
40:21Gosh, very muscular fish. Just gave a bit of a kick there.
40:24This is all muscle here, so it's a very strong fish, very powerful.
40:29But, um, I'm just...
40:31Ooh!
40:33I'm just trying to look at the business end here.
40:35Just look at that.
40:39On the small one, they were quite delicate teeth on here.
40:48I mean, those are real crushes.
40:51What this fish normally feeds on in the Amazon is seeds and nuts, and, you know, they often have tough cases to be opened.
40:59So these teeth, basically, they're nutcrackers.
41:04This thing really does look like a giant piranha.
41:08But the teeth on this, not designed for cutting, but for crushing and tearing.
41:14Seeing those teeth reminds me of all the stories I've been told about the attacks on people.
41:23It's like human beings biting onto my leg.
41:25Those teeth really do look uncannily like human teeth.
41:29And to be bitten by those, you know, I think that would be a very creepy experience.
41:33It would be just like being bitten by a person.
41:36I didn't experience the type of pain I did now.
41:40Come on!
41:42They say that when a piranha bites you, when it actually bites, you don't know what's happening because it's such a clean cut.
41:47But this would be a very jagged, messy tear, and I think you'd certainly know about this when this bit you.
41:53And if these fish hear something splashing in the water, they don't go heading the opposite direction like other fish.
42:00They come heading for that sound with those teeth bare.
42:03I'm left in no doubt that the Paku is the ball cutter.
42:12A vegetarian turned man-eater.
42:16An outsized piranha with a taste for human flesh.
42:20An alien invader running amok, dominating entire stretches of the Seapic River.
42:25The river people now accept that the ball cutter is something they have to live with.
42:31It's just a graphic example of the unintended side effects that you can get when you start meddling with nature.
42:37This nightmare may seem easy to dismiss as someone else's problem, far from our own backyard.
42:52But perhaps not.
42:53The Paku have now turned up in 19 different states in the US.
42:59So far, numbers have not exploded, nor has anyone been attacked.
43:04But just as in the Seapic, things can change very quickly.
43:07And once the genie is out of the bottle, you can never put it back.
43:16Want more of the world's wildest, strangest and most terrifying freshwater horrors?
43:21Visit our website at animalplanet.com slash rivermonsters
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