There was a programme on British TV the other night about piranhas, fact and fiction.
Fact. All breeds of Piranha are flesh eaters
Fiction: They cannot strip a man to the bone in seconds
Fact: All breeds are cannibalistic
Fiction: They will attack without provocation
Fact: They will attack sick fish and animals that panic in water
Fiction: They are not all pack animals
Fact: They can smell blood from miles away
There were alot of other F & F but one that propogated the myth of the Piranha was to do with Theodore Roosevelt. It seems that he had heard of these fish and wanted to see what they could do. In order to impress him locals placed nets across two parts of the Amazon and trapped a load of Piranha between the nets.
They then deliberately starved the fish for weeks and when Teddy came to see them they tossed a cow into the river (having made cuts on the animal) the starving fish promptly swarmed on the beast and in a very short time it was reduced to bone.
Teddy went back to the USA greatly impressed and had cod and chips for tea
Not quite.
The two front legs were always crossed in front of each other and raised- and they appeared to have pinchers on the end of each leg. Also, the bodies seemed to be flatter and without markings unlike the ones you linked.
Looks like a red Piranha, only the adults eat flesh & the ones they used appear to me to be quite young, here is a picture & info on these & they are used in aquariums & books on their care are at amazon.com:
Using the name provided by mske I found these photos of a similar spider. It is about 5 spiders down on the page. For anyone who missed the show you can see that the front “legs” look very odd, almost like little hands.
Good point about the name whuckfistle. I can’t help but think that the name Tanzanian Giant Tailless Whipscorpion is a lot scarier sounding then African cave-dwelling spider. I wonder where Fear Factor came up with that name?
The pirahna were particularly fear-free for me when Joe described the stunt: The tank contained the fish, along with a quantity of pig kidneys. The contestants needed to extract 7 of the kidneys using their mouths, while surrounded by potentially man-eating fish.
However, if these fish were at all likely to bite the contestants, they would have eaten all the kidneys, wouldn’t they?
BTW, the Fear Factor site says the fish were red-bellied pirahna, and are the largest collection of pirahna in North America (over 500 individuals). The spiders are only referred to as African cave-dwelling spiders.
Whole story there with photos too, esp of that blond eating em.
"EAT AFRICAN CAVE-DWELLING SPIDERS
In Las Vegas you have to play big to win big. No one knows that better than Fear Factor contestant Krisandra Johnson who took a huge gamble when she agreed to eat the live African cave-dwelling spider. "
I agree, I just caught a quick glimse of the preview, and I started shuddering and gagging and yelling EWW EWW , making my husband yell at me to shut up.There’s definitely something wrong with this world!!
