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Red-bellied Piranha — printable fact sheet
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Animal Fact Sheet
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Red-bellied Piranha
Pygocentrus nattereri
The piranha's reputation is almost entirely undeserved. It is not a frenzied killer that strips a cow to the bone in minutes; it is largely an opportunist and a scavenger, eating fish, insects, seeds and carrion, and it will readily take a mouthful out of something already dead …
Did you know?
- Red-bellied piranhas are more likely to scavenge than to attack live prey, and large feeding frenzies usually occur only when food is scarce.
- Piranhas shoal for protection, not to hunt in packs — they are heavily preyed on themselves. They are mostly opportunists and scavengers, not the frenzied killers of the legend. The famous feeding frenzies happen in starving, crowded dry-season pools — the exact conditions staged for the demonstrations that built the myth. They do have a formidable bite, and they bark and drum using the swim bladder.
What I learned
Draw the red-bellied piranha
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