The Amazon rain forest is an immense ecosystem, providing a habitat
for creatures as weird and wonderful as the jaguar, the poison dart frog
and the Jesus lizard. But it’s home to more than just the animals that
prowl, swing, and slither through the trees. In the depths of the Amazon
River, the largest river in the world, live creatures so amazing and so
terrifying, that they make
Jaws look like a nice, relaxing swim in the ocean.
10 Black Caiman
A black caiman is basically an alligator on steroids. They can grow
up to six meters (20 feet) long, with bigger, heavier skulls than Nile
crocodiles, and are the apex predator in the Amazonian waters. That
means they are basically the kings of the river—they eat
nearly anything they can get their teeth into, including piranhas, monkeys, perch, deer, and anaconda.
Oh, and yes, they totally attack humans. In 2010, a biologist named
Deise Nishimura was attacked by a caiman while cleaning a fish on her
houseboat, and while she managed to fight it off, it took
one of her legs
with it. This particular caiman had been living under her houseboat for
eight months, evidently waiting for the chance to strike.
9 Green Anaconda
Continuing with the theme of gigantic reptiles, the
largest snake in the world
makes its home in the Amazon: the anaconda. While reticulated pythons
are actually longer, green anaconda are far heavier; the females,
generally larger than males, can reach 250 kilograms (550 lbs), grow to
nine meters (over 29 feet) long and reach 30 centimeters (12 in) in
diameter. They are not venomous but instead use their immense muscular
power to constrict and suffocate their prey, which includes capybara,
deer, caiman, and even jaguars. Preferring shallower waters that allow
them to stealthily sneak up on their prey, they tend to live in
offshoots of the Amazon rather than the river itself.
8 Arapaima
Arapaima, also known as “pirarucu” or “paiche,” are gigantic
carnivorous fish that live in the Amazon and surrounding lakes. Encased
in
armored scales,
they think nothing of living in piranha-infested waters—and they are
pretty effective predators themselves, feeding on fish and the
occasional bird. Arapaima tend to stay close to the surface, because
they need to breathe surface air in addition to taking in oxygen through
their gills, and make a distinctive coughing sound when they emerge for
air. They can reach 2.7 meters (nine feet) in length and weigh up to 90
kilograms (200 lbs). These fish are so vicious that even their tongue
has teeth.
7 Giant Otter
Heading up the “exactly what it says on the tin” category are the
giant otters, who, as their name suggests, are very large otters. They
are the longest examples of the weasel family, with adult males reaching
up to two meters (over six feet) from head to tail. Their diet
primarily consists of fish and crabs, which they hunt in family groups
of three to eight members, and they can eat up to four kilograms (nine
pounds) of seafood per day. Don’t be fooled by their cute looks,
though—they are more than a match for the other animals on this list,
with groups of them having been spotted killing and eating an anaconda.
They hold their own against caiman as well. One family
was seen devouring a 1.5 meter (five foot) caiman, which took them about 45 minutes. While their numbers
are dwindling,
mainly due to human intervention, they are among the most capable
predators in the Amazon rain forest, hence their local name of “river
wolves.”
6 Candiru
The Amazon doesn’t only breed giants, and the small creatures are
just as terrifying, at least if you believe the stories that surround
them. Candiru are small, parasitic, freshwater catfish famous for
launching themselves up the urethra of anyone foolish enough to urinate
in the river, and getting lodged into the urinary tract because of the
spines that run along their backs. While documented cases are rare, and
there is some debate over whether these types of injuries occur at all,
there is
at least one documented case
of a man requiring surgery to remove a candiru from his urethra—which
had also attempted to burrow through to his testicles. However, the
candiru usually preys
on fish, attaching themselves to the larger fish’s gills with their spines and feeding on their host’s blood.
5 Bull Sharks
While technically ocean-dwelling saltwater animals, bull sharks are
quite at home in fresh water, too—they have been found as far down the
Amazon as Iquitos in Peru, almost 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi) from the
sea. They have special kidneys that can sense the change in salinity of
the surrounding water and adapt accordingly. And you do not want to meet
one of these in the river; it is common for them to reach 3.3 meters
(11 ft) in length and there have been reports of sharks weighing 312
kilograms (690 lbs). Like many sharks, they have several rows of sharp,
triangular teeth and
immensely powerful jaws, with a bite force of 589 kilograms (1,300 lb). They’re also quite partial to a bit of human, being one of the
most frequent attackers of people
(along with tiger sharks and great whites). Combined with their habit
of living near densely populated areas, this has led many experts to
label them the most dangerous sharks in the world.
4 Electric Eels
Electric eels are actually more closely related to catfish than eels,
but you probably wouldn’t want to get close enough to one to find out.
They can grow up to 2.5 meters (eight feet) long and can produce jolts
of electricity from specialized cells called electrocytes arranged down
their flanks. These charges can reach
up to 600 volts,
five times the charge of an average American plug socket, and enough to
knock a horse off its feet. While one shock isn’t enough to kill a
healthy adult human, multiple shocks can cause heart or respiratory
failure, and it’s common for people to be stunned and drown after an eel
attack. Many of the disappearances recorded in the region have been
attributed to eels that have stunned their victims and left them to
drown in the river. Luckily for our species, the eels, while
carnivorous, tend to stick to eating fish, amphibians, birds, and small
mammals. They locate their prey by sending out small, 10-volt shocks
from their electrocyte cells, before stunning or killing them with
larger shocks.
3 Red-Bellied Piranhas
The quintessential terror of the Amazon River, so widely feared that
they have inspired a number of questionable Hollywood movies,
red-bellied piranhas are actually
primarily scavengers.
That’s not to say they won’t attack healthy creatures; after all, given
that they can grow to be over 30 centimeters (12 in) long and swim
around in large groups, they tend to be more than a match for most
animals. Like all piranhas, red-bellies have incredibly sharp teeth, one
row on each of their powerful upper and lower jaws. These teeth are
interlocking, which makes them perfect for tearing and rending the flesh
of their prey. Their fearsome reputation mainly comes from sights of
their “feeding frenzies,” where groups of piranhas will congregate on
their unlucky prey and strip it to the bone within minutes. These
attacks
are rare and are usually the result of starvation or provocation.
2 Payara (Vampire Fish)
Anything with the name “vampire fish” should automatically be recognized as scary (even after
Twilight), and payara are no exception. They are absolutely
ferocious predators,
capable of devouring fish up to half their own body size. Given that
they can grow up to 1.2 meters (four feet) long, this is no mean feat. A
large part of their diet is made up of piranhas, which should give you
some idea of how tough these fanged fiends can be. They get their name
from the two tusks that sprout from their lower jaw, which can grow up
to 15 centimeters (six inches) long and which they use to literally
impale their prey
after viciously lunging at them. Their fangs are so big, in fact, that
they have special holes in their upper jaw to avoid impaling themselves.
1 Pacu
One animal certain to be far more terrifying to men than to women, the pacu is a
much larger
relative of the piranha, known for its distinctive, human-like teeth.
Unlike most of the creatures on this list, the pacu is actually
omnivorous, and a good part of its diet is comprised of fruit and nuts.
Unfortunately for some pacu, “nuts” may not only mean things that drop
from trees. Yes, that’s right: Pacu are alleged to have occasionally
bitten off the testicles of male swimmers, with reports of men in Papua
New Guinea being killed by pacu after the fish apparently mistook their
genitalia for an easy snack. Oh, and don’t worry if you can’t make it to
the Amazon to see these manhood-masticating monsters, because they’re
already
spreading into Europe.
