Tooth and Claw: Piranhas

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Adam Hart investigates a frenzied and voracious fish from South America – the piranha! Said to be able to strip their prey to the bone in mere minutes, there are plenty of gruesome tales about the bubbling bloodbaths that occur when shoals of these hardy fish feed in the freshwaters across South America - from up in Venezuela in the Orinoco River, to the Amazon and down to the Paraná River in Argentina. What role did former United States President Theodore Roosevelt have in creating the piranha’s fearsome reputation? And is this reputation misguided?

Adam hears what piranhas are really like, both in the wild and in captivity. He learns about how these fish hunt, the impact that humans are having on them and tries to establish if they really are as bloodthirsty as we’ve been led to believe.

Contributors:

Marcelo Ândrade is a professor at the Federal University of Maranhão in Brazil. He researches the environments that piranha live in and their behaviour, as well as plastic ingestion by piranhas.

Hannah Thomas is the aquarium team manager at Chester Zoo in the UK where they care for 40 red-bellied piranhas.

Presenter: Professor Adam Hart Producer: Jonathan Blackwell Editor: Holly Squire Production Coordinator: Jonathan Harris Studio Manager: Neva Missirian

(Photo: Red-Bellied Piranha, Credit: Ed Reschke via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and I'd like to tell you a bit about the
0:03.8	podcast I work on. I'm Dan Clark and I commissioned factual podcasts at the BBC.
0:08.6	It's a massive area but I'd sum it up as stories to help us make sense of the forces shaping the world.
0:15.0	What podcasting does is give us the space and the time to take brilliant BBC journalism
0:20.0	and tell amazing compelling stories that really get behind the headlines.
0:23.7	And what I get really excited about is when we find a way of drawing you into a subject
0:28.3	you might not even have thought you were interested in.
0:30.2	Whether it's investigations, science, tech, politics, culture, true crime, the environment,
0:36.1	you can always discover more with a podcast on BBC Sounds.
0:39.6	The Global Story is the podcast helping you make sense. The at the stories making the headlines with insights from the BBC's global network of experts.
0:55.8	Search for The Global Story, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. You're listening to Discovery from the BBC World Service. I'm Adam Hart and this is Tooth and claw,
1:12.0	the series where I explore are complex and challenging
1:15.1	relationships with Earth's greatest predators through the people who have spent their lives
1:19.3	studying, protecting and at times narrowly escaping them.
1:23.0	Today's predator may be small,
1:28.0	but its powerful jaw muscles and serrated teeth give it the capability to
1:34.2	rip flesh with its strong bite. From feeding frenzies to bubbling blood baths
1:38.7	there are plenty of gruesome stories about shoals of these fish in the
1:42.2	fresh waters of South America.
1:44.4	But are these tales true?
1:46.2	And what role did a former United States president play in giving these fish their voracious
1:50.4	reputation?
	...

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