(Show notes from our Amazon River episode- WBB #006- “Total Discharge”)
The Amazon river is friggin’ huge. It is the second longest river in the world at just about 4,000 miles long, while the Nile River in Africa, is the longest at 4,132 miles long… but in reality, the Amazon dwarfs the Nile. The total discharge of the Nile is 99,000 cubic feet/sec….But the Amazon has a discharge of almost 7.4 million ft³/s!
The Amazon River basin is also the largest river basin in the entire world, covering over 2.5 million square miles, or over 35% of the entire South American continent, and spanning 8 countries! These countries include Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
The Amazon rainforest remains one of the scariest and largely mysterious places in the entire world, and for good reason. There is an insane diversity of plant and animal life down there, and many of them have earned themselves a ferocious reputation.
The diversity in the rainforest is so great, we couldn’t even begin to cover it all. So today, we’re just gonna talk about some of the creatures swimming around in the Amazon River and its tributaries. So, here are the top 8 scariest monsters lurking in the Amazon River!
8. Candiru
Have you ever heard of the legend of the candiru? Also known as the toothpick fish or vampire fish, the candiru is a small, translucent species of catfish, native to the Amazon. It only grows about an inch long, but has a terrifying reputation.
You see, candiru are parasitic feeders. They swim up into the gills of larger fish, attach themselves in there, drink their blood until they’re satisfied, and then swim happily away.
Well, legend has it that the candiru is also highly attracted to the smell of urine. So, if you pee in the Amazon river, it’ll quickly swim up your pee stream, lodge itself into your urethra with razor sharp barbs, and slowly eat your penis and testicles from the inside out.
And the only way to save your boys, is to have surgery to extract the fish out, but it sometimes requires amputation…and ladies, just because you might not have a penis, and I say might not, you’re not off the hook. They’re also said to be attracted to other orifices too including your vagina and rectum. So if you jump in, you better be clenching!
Candiru Myth Busted?
Fortunately, the legend of the candiru is mostly just that; legend. There is actually very little evidence to substantiate the stories. The first report of the candiru’s tendency to lodge itself into the urethra came in 1829 when a German biologist named Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius published a report based on stories from the native people of the areas. (There was NO first-hand observation). But the native men apparently told him that they would tie ligatures around their penises to protect themselves when they went in the water.
It was also pure speculation that he reported the candiru’s attraction to the smell of urine. This was debunked in 2001, when researchers determined candiru hunt purely with their sight, not smell.
The pee myth even takes it a step further and alleges that the candiru would actually jump straight out of the water and swim right up the pee stream… But physicists have debunked this as defying the laws of physics and fluid mechanics, though there are still plenty of believers.
Verified Candiru Cases
There have actually been a few documented cases since the 1830s of candiru lodging themselves into women’s vaginal canals requiring them to be extracted by a doctor because of their sharp spines. There has never been a documented case of candiru lodging itself into someone’s anus, however, and there has only been one documented case of a candiru invading a man’s urethra. And even that case is highly questionable.
It happened in 1997 in Brazil. A 23-year-old claimed the fish just jumped right out of the water and lodged itself into his penis while he was peeing. He underwent a 2-hour surgery to remove the fish from his urethra. The doctor who performed the procedure provided video evidence and also the fish itself which he preserved in formalin. But investigators have punched tons of holes in his story, and essentially suggest the patient, the doctor, or even both had staged the whole thing.
Nevertheless, the candiru makes it to the list based on legend alone.
7. Piranha
Have you ever seen footage of a piranha feeding frenzy? It’s freaky as hell! These guys have been known to shred beasts into skeletons in a matter of minutes…
Thankfully, piranhas have garnered a ferocious reputation mostly thanks to Hollywood, as much of their aggressive behavior has been sensationalized in many films including their namesake, Piranha.
You’re not just gonna step into the Amazon river and get shredded into a skeleton…
The reality is, piranha are mostly scavengers. They usually feed on insects, worms, other fish, and dead things. They do have an incredibly powerful bite and have been known to be aggressive, especially in times of drought and scarce food, but not to the extent that you see in the movies.
Roosevelt’s Piranha Show
Piranhas actually got their fierce reputation from Teddy Roosevelt who visited a village in the Amazon in 1913. The villagers decided to show Roosevelt what piranhas were capable of, which he documented in his book Through the Brazilian Wilderness. He described them as the most ferocious and aggressive fish in the world, who would willingly attack other creatures much larger than them.
The problem with this account though, was Roosevelt set up. The villagers had actually starved a large school of piranha for over a week in an enclosure. Then, when Roosevelt rolled into town, they let the fish out into the river, and dropped a live cow in with them. The piranha wasted no time devouring this cow, and within a matter of minutes, the river was a giant red foamy blood bath, and all that was left of the cow was the skeleton. And so, the legend of the piranha was born.
Verified Piranha Attacks
Usually, attacks occur during periods of low water levels where food is scarce. In 2015, a six-year-old girl fell into the water when her canoe capsized during a storm. Piranha attacked her, ate the flesh from her legs, and she died at the scene.
In 2012, another six-year-old boy died following a piranha attack where the fish ate the flesh off one of his forearms.
And in 2011 a drunk 18-year-old fell into a river in Bolivia, where he became the target of a piranha feeding frenzy. He died of blood loss. What’s craziest about this one is authorities suggested it was a suicide, claiming the person jumped in the water in purpose!
Finally, one of the biggest piranha attacks ever occurred on Christmas Day 2013 in Argentina. It was a sweltering 100-degree day and hundreds of people were trying to cool off by taking a swim in a river. Ironically, it was called the Parana River…Suddenly a massive feeding frenzy began and over 70 people were bitten and injured while trying to escape. This included 20 children, several of which lost parts of fingers and toes. Fortunately, no one was killed.
But the piranha has earned its spot on the list for sure.
6. Pacu fish
The pacu fish is another creature that swims through people’s nightmares. It’s a cousin of the piranha but with a couple key differences. First, they can get much larger than piranhas. While piranhas can get up to 12 inches long, the pacu fish can reach up to 3 feet long and 55 lbs! Also, instead of the razor-sharp teeth that piranhas possess which can easily shred through flesh, the pacu fish actually has teeth that look freakishly like humans. They use these to grind up vegetation like fruit and rubber tree nuts, giving them the nickname “nutcracker fish.” But they’ve also been known to inflict damage on other nuts as well…
Pacu Myths or Reality?
In 2001, there was reportedly 2 separate incidents of fishermen getting their testicles bitten off by the pacu fish and subsequently bleeding to death. Imagine wading around with your junk floating free and then getting your nuts crunched right off by a fish with human teeth!
Now, the alleged incidents are largely unsubstantiated but there are other well documented reports of people receiving bites on their legs and other body parts, so it’s definitely not unfathomable to think it could happen elsewhere…
Migration of the Pacu Fish
And just because you don’t live in the Amazon, doesn’t mean you’re safe. Pacu fish have also seemingly been popping up all over the world besides just South America including Papua New Guinea, Scandinavian lakes along with other parts of Europe, and even right in the U.S. including Arizona, Florida, and a lake in New Jersey. These Amazonian fish may have been released from aquariums or exotic fish breeders which may explain their migration….
So protect yo’ nuts!
5. Electric Eel
This one is a shift from the stuff of legend to legitimate frightening reality. The electric eel is one of the scariest and most unique creatures swimming around the Amazon River.
Despite its name, the electric eel isn’t really an eel at all. It’s actually a type of knife fish, which is closely related to the catfish. And because of how unique they are, scientists have had trouble classifying them so they ended up putting the electric eel into it’s own genus: genus Electrophorus. And its full scientific name is pretty badass: Electrophorus electricus.
Electric eels are serious forces to be reckoned with. They can reach up to 8 feet long and have special organs running the entire length of their body that can produce up to 850 volts of electricity! Just for reference, common household electric outlets are 110 volts…so an eel shock can knock you flat on your ass, and even potentially stun you.
And though there haven’t been many documented cases of eel attacks on humans, the legitimate fear is if you get nailed in the water and get stunned, you could easily drown before you come to…and an electric shock could also interrupt breathing and even cause heart failure.
The Power of the Electric Eel
But just because there aren’t many deaths directly associated with eel shocks, doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. In 2010, a video went viral of a Brazilian fisherman who caught a big electric eel and pulled it to shore. He left it there to go grab something off camera, and when he came back, a caiman was sizing the eel up to eat it. (A caiman is a cousin of the alligator.) When the caiman went in for the kill, the eel flipped the script, shocked the shit out of it, and killed the caiman instantly. The came just shook violently, completely paralyzed as it was getting electrocuted until it died…
Can Eels Leap?
And that’s not even the scariest thing. Electric eels have been said to actually leap out of the water and deliver shocks to would-be predators in aerial attacks as well. There was even a report of electric eels killing a full-grown horse in this manner back in the 1800s. This has been met with some skepticism, but researchers at Vanderbilt University actually confirmed the possibility of this story in 2016 by performing a series of tests with electric eels. They found that, as opposed to how electricity is distributed when the eels are under water, when they leap up the electricity is much more concentrated at the point of contact and can do some lethal damage!
So if electric eels could kill a caiman, and could kill a horse, what makes a human impervious?
4. Black Caiman
The next creature on our list is the black caiman. The black caiman is considered one of the most aggressive crocodilian species in the world, and is found widespread throughout the Amazon Basin.
Whereas many of the other species of caiman are smaller and considered less of a threat to humans, black caiman can grow to 20 feet long and have been known to hunt everything including piranha, electric eel, capybara, jaguar, and even anaconda. They will even eat their own young if they’re hungry enough!
Caiman Attacks by the Numbers
So, it’s no mystery why these guys are on this list. According to the Worldwide Crocodilian Attack Database, there have been 93 officially reported black caiman attacks in the Amazon River Basin. Of these, 30 of them were fatal, while many other victimes were left severely wounded or maimed. And just think about all the attacks that went unreported…
Verified Black Caiman Attacks
One of the most well documented attacks occurred in February 2010, when several children were bathing in a river in the Brazilian amazon. Suddenly and without warning, a black caiman attacked one of the children, an 11 year old girl, and bit down on her thigh, fracturing her femur. A fisherman saw this from a distance but both the girl and the caiman quickly disappeared underwater before he could do anything.
The attack occurred around noon, and a search quickly ensued, but it wasn’t until 8 pm when they finally found the caiman, as it emerged from under water a short distance away. The girl’s body was still clutched in its mouth….Searchers killed the caiman and finally were able to retrieve the girl’s body.
And there were 6 Black Caiman attacks reported in 2019 alone, 2 of them fatal. One of them was a 53-year-old man fishing from a canoe, possibly intoxicated, when he was attacked and killed. The other was a 50-year-old man washing and cleaning fish at the riverside when he too, was ambushed and killed.
So yes, black caiman are some of the scariest creatures in the Amazon for sure!
3. Green Anaconda
Ever since the movie Anaconda came out in 1997, Anacondas have been on my “don’t ever fuck with list.”
Anaconda are a non-venomous species of boa who squeeze their prey to death with their massive body muscles, constricting and suffocating them. They are primarily nocturnal and spend most of their lives in or around water because they are excellent swimmers.
Their diet mostly consists of birds, rodents, and other reptiles, but anacondas are also known to take down Jaguars and even fully grown caiman. They have even been known to feed on other anacondas from time to time…
The green anaconda is honestly a monster. It is the heaviest snake in the world, commonly reaching 15-20 feet long, and females are usually larger than males. But the largest one ever recorded was nearly 30 feet long, weighed almost 550 lbs, and was over a foot in diameter!
The largest Anaconda?
There are reports of 35 to 40-foot anacondas but these have been unsubstantiated and many are skeptical. There is actually a cash reward of $50,000 up for grabs for anyone who can catch a 30-foot Anaconda and verify it, but the prize has yet to be claimed.
Anaconda Attacks?
Attacks on humans are very rare with few if any documented cases positively attributed to anacondas in the wild.
But in 2007, a 16-foot anaconda attacked an 8 year old boy, bit him on the chest, and coiled around him in an attempt to crush him. Fortunately, the boy’s 66-year-old grandfather was able to fight the snake off and after a half hour battle, was finally able to uncoil the snake from the boy. The boy received 21 stitches on his chest from the bite he received during the attack but luckily, was okay…
Based on the size of some of their prey though, it’s widely agreed upon that an anaconda could easily kill and eat a human. There are other snakes, including the Burmese Python, that have long and well-documented track records of killing and swallowing people whole…but since we’re sticking with the Amazon right now, that’s for a different episode.
2. Giant otter
The giant otter is another creature native to the Amazon Basin who has earned the right to be on this list. Though it may not be the most threatening animal to humans, I think it still deserves a spot.
The giant otter has unfortunately been hunted to an endangered status, due to the fact that they are considered a nuisance animal who negatively impact the fishing industry.
But besides the threat of humans, they are an apex predator. Giant Otters can reach 6 feet long and are the largest members of the weasel family. They are carnivorous, and their diet consists mainly of fish, crabs, turtles, and snakes.
Though they are fairly peaceful animals, they’ve earned their spot on the list because of their aggressiveness when they feel threatened and also their ability to communicate and hunt in highly coordinated attacks.
They’ve been known to take down large prey including caiman and anacondas…Go to YouTube and search for videos of giant otters attacking caiman and other animals much larger than them. It’ll blow your mind…
Even river otters in North America are known to be bastards. There are several stories of otters attacking people and dogs.
They might look cute, but they don’t mess around.
1. Bull shark
Finally, the number one scariest creature swimming around the Amazon River, is the Bull Shark. The Bull Shark is widely considered the most dangerous shark in the entire world, above even the tiger shark and great white. They are known to be very aggressive and will willingly attack without being provoked.
Bull sharks can grow to 8 feet long and commonly weigh nearly 300 lbs, but the biggest one ever caught was right in the Florida keys and weighed in at 850 lbs! They also have the strongest bite force of any shark, at 1330 lbs, so they could snap you in half like a toothpick with one bite.
The Bull Shark’s Special Power
The thing that makes them the most scary though, is their unique ability to survive in both salt water and fresh water. This is why bull sharks are often found in the waters of the Amazon River. In fact, they’ve been found over 2,500 miles inland from the ocean! (They’ve also been found over 700 miles up the Mississippi river as far north as Illinois.)
Bull Shark Attack
Bull Sharks are also responsible for the infamous 1916 New Jersey shark attack that inspired the movie Jaws. Over the course of two weeks in July, 4 people were killed and one seriously injured from shark attacks right in the Matawan River, which is a fresh water creek in northern New Jersey.
Two of the attacks occurred within an hour of one another. Soon after, a big 300 pound bull shark was caught and after dissection, officials found 15 lbs of human remains in its stomach. This caused a wave of panic throughout the country, and for good reason. Bull sharks are a serious concern!
So, the Bull Shark reigns supreme on my list of scariest creatures invading the Amazon River. I think it’s pretty safe to say I’ll never go swimming in the Amazon…
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this list of the top 8 scariest Amazon River monsters! If you have any questions or comments, make sure to drop them below! Also check us out on social media and sign up for our mailing list to get weekly blog articles and show notes sent right to your inbox!
Stay Safe & Stay Alive
Cody
The Wild Bites Back
References
Scariest Animals in the Amazon
The Most Dangerous Animals Of The Amazon Rainforest
Amazon River- Encyclopedia Britannica
Teddy Roosevelt Turned Piranhas Into Ferocious Maneaters
Brazilian pries grandson from anaconda’s death grip
WORLDWIDE CROCODILIAN ATTACK DATABASE