Random Things about What It's Like to Be Devoured Alive by Piranhas (11 items)

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  (#1) The Flesh Is Stripped from Your Bones

  The greatest fear surrounding piranhas is they can strip the flesh from a man's bones. It turns out it's true. In 2015, a 6-year-old girl from Brazil fell into the Maicuru River, near the town of Monte Alegre, where she was set upon by piranhas. When her body was recovered by her family, they found virtually all the flesh was stripped from her legs.
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  (#2) You Can Bleed to Death

  If you're being attacked en masse by a swarm of piranha, it's safe to say you're not actually going to die from being eaten alive - you'll die from bleeding out.

  Piranhas are too small to eat an entire human, and even in a swarm it would take a while before they chomped you to bits. But if you're being sliced by hundreds of little fish teeth, you're going to bleed like you've fallen into a bath tub of razor wire. When an unidentified 18-year-old man drunkenly jumped out of a canoe in Rosario del Yata, Bolivia, he was set upon by piranha. After he was removed from the water he almost immediately bled to death. 
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  (#3) Piranhas Prefer to Attack Face First

  Piranhas instinctively grab their prey by the face, which is truly frightening. Some of the piranhas favorite targets are sickly, old animals - specifically cows - that stop to drink in rivers. When a cow lowers its head, they'll clamp onto its face. If the cow is too weak to fight back, the piranhas will drag it into the water and eat it. It's something straight out of a nightmare. 
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  (#4) Piranhas Scream at You While They Feast

  As if piranhas weren't already scary enough with their razor sharp teeth and insatiable blood lust, they also can generate a scream. Unlike other fish, piranhas are sound-producing animals who have multiple screams depending on the moment. Piranhas make sound by contracting a series of muscles surrounding the cranial sack of their swimbladder. There are three different sounds associated with these muscles, and the second is the one you really don't want to hear. When piranhas are circling and fighting, they release a single pulse. Which means if you're surrounded by piranha who are feasting on your skin, you're going to hear them - and probably yourself - scream. 
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  (#5) Their Bite Packs a Mean Wallop

  If you find yourself on the wrong end of a piranha bite, you're going to be dealing with pain you've never felt before. Piranhas have among the most powerful bites in carnivorous vertebrates when scaled for their body size. It's the strongest of any known bony fish with an anterior bite force of 320 N. 

  Even at their small body sizes, diet studies indicate that piranhas will attack and bite chunks out of prey many times larger than themselves. Best case scenario, if a piranha bites you, you'll pass out from the pain rather than have to deal with a hundred more bites from these tiny monsters. 
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  (#6) Piranhas Eat Everything

  When an 11-year-old boy on vacation with his family in Peru fell into piranha infested water, they discovered firsthand the damage the small fish can do. When the boy's body was recovered, most of his flesh and organs had been devoured, but some members of his family believe he had drowned long before the piranhas began eating him. Either way, this proves piranhas don't waste one bit of their prey, and it seems they prefer to munch on a victim who can't fight back.
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  (#7) You'll Be Devoured in a Frenzy

  Piranhas don't travel alone - they go in packs. When they attack their prey, they all attack at once, creating a sort of frenzy for food.  Scientists say this is especially true when the fish experience food deprivation, either from natural or human causes. If trapped in a small space, the fish respond in a frenzied attack that cause a great deal of harm for anyone in their way. 
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  (#8) They Take Small Bites

  Piranhas aren't the largest of fish - they come in anywhere from 8 to 15 inches long - and their mouth can only handle so much. Which is why it's unsurprising they take small, yet deep bites when eating their meals. Of the 20 species of piranha in the Amazon, 12 survive entirely on taking small bites out of the fins and scales of other fish as they pass. It's rare for piranhas to attack humans when unprovoked, but when they do, they take small bites. Humans either pass out from the pain, or bleed to death from multiple lacerations. 
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  (#9) The More You Bleed the More They Bite

  Piranhas can smell just a tiny drop of blood in up to 200 liters of water. They're attracted to the smell of blood, and respond to its presence. Their sharp teeth cause multiple lacerations and considerable blood loss. This, in turn, can cause more piranhas to descend. While scientists say these feeding frenzies aren't very common, in theory one piranha bite could set off an endless cycle of bleeding and chomping until you either die from loss of blood or you drown. 
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  (#10) They Latch on Tight

  If you suddenly find yourself besieged by piranha while swimming, expect them to latch on hard. While a man in China was washing his dog in the Liujiang River, he was attacked by piranhas. It wasn't a pretty ending. The fish latched onto his hand, causing deep lacerations. He eventually was able to pry it off, and even kept it as a pet, according to news reports. 
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  (#11) They Aren't Scared by Human Activity

  Do you think you're safe just because you're swimming in the Amazon with 70 other people? There's no such thing as safety in numbers when avoiding a piranha attack. These fish are not deterred by human activity. 

  In 2013, while thousands of people were cooling off from 100-degree temperatures in the Parana River in Argentina, piranhas attacked at least 70 people, leaving bite marks on their hands and feet. Director of lifeguards Federico Cornier blamed the bites on palometas, "a type of piranha, big, voracious and with sharp teeth that can really bite."

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