The Deccan Chronicle carried a report this morning which claimed that the “most dreaded fish in the world, the red-bellied piranha, has found its way into the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh.”
The deadly creature, also known as the ‘ball-cutter’, apparently “bites off testicles of men entering its territory.” A cousin of the piranha, the Pacu fish, was also found in the Godavari.
The Pacu, or Pygocentrus Brachypomus, are original inhabitants of the Amazon basin, but in the recent years they have been found in Sweden and France as well. After their mysterious appearance in Sweden, Denmark’s Natural History Museum issued a warning asking swimmers to beware of these fish.
The Pacu is not normally dangerous to people but it has quite a serious bite, there have been incidents in other countries, such as Papua New Guinea where some men have had their testicles bitten off.
- Henrik Carl, a fish expert from the Danish Museum
He further explained, “… its mouth is not so big, so of course it normally eats nuts, fruit, and small fish, but human testicles are just a natural target. It’s not normal to get your testicles bitten off, of course, but it can happen, especially now in Sweden.”
But CNN was later told that the ‘testicles’ comment, which originated from Carl, was “just a joke out of hand.” CNN quotes William Fink, a piranha researcher at the University of Michigan.
The nuts that they’re eating, the fruits that they’re eating, are splashing down from above, and humans don’t act like that when they’re swimming.
So you don’t have to worry about taking a swim in the Godavari.
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