13 Piranha
Rick Bein
Men should Never Swim with Piranha without a Swimming Suit On!
Piranhas in South American rivers perform a job for the environment by keeping the rivers clean of organic material. While known for their meat-eating habits, not all of the dozen or more species of piranha eat flesh. Some species of piranhas are vegetarian and consume fruits and leaves that fall into the rivers.
My Peace Corps (1964) experience with piranhas came after an extensive all-day trip from the Campo Cerrado down onto the Pantanal of western Brazil. A settler and his family were being taken out to the Taquari River to where they would be sequestered once the rainy season was in full force. My Peace Corps buddy and I accepted the offer and joined the group.
Hand drawn map by Rick Bein 1966 showing the towns of central Mato Grosso do Sul with the Pantanal on the left side.
0____________200 miles
The Pantanal of western Brazil is one of the world’s largest unique wetlands. Most of the seventy-thousand-square mile area (about the size of North Dakota) is owned by approximately thirty ranchers who use it mostly for dry season cattle grazing and recreation. During the rainy season, this vast flat lowland floods from all the surrounding swollen rivers. It is only one hundred meters above sea level, yet it is two thousand kilometers to the sea. The Paraguay River slowly drains the Pantanal each year, taking the water south to meet the Paraná River, which releases into the La Plata River before dumping into the Atlantic Ocean.
The Pantanal has one of the most unique bio-diversities. A number of swamp plants have evolved very differently here from similar environments around the world. Among the fauna are a number of unique species pictured below. Some are shared with the Amazon Basin such as the Piranha. The largest rodent on the earth, the capybara is found here, a flightless bird unique to Brazil, the ema, the peccary, the anaconda and many more.
The Pantanal – Passeo de Longes Camp – Capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) , largest rodent on the planet. Photo by kthomason is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Ema ( Rhea Americana) by Wagner Machado Carlos Lemes is licensed free under CC BY 2.0
Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu) by Smithsonian’s National Zoo is licensed free under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 2008
Anaconda_Loreto_Peru httpsupload.wikimedia.orgwikipediacommons2009
It was the beginning of the rainy season and the last opportunity to move the family before the Pantanal became completely flooded. Half a dozen of us crowded in among all of their furniture plus the food and supplies that were loaded onto the open truck.
After leaving the main road and starting down onto the Pantanal, someone discovered the case of Caxasa bottles hidden under some of the family’s belongings. A lid came off, and the bottled alcohol was passed around. Eventually some bottles ended up in the truck cab! A short time later the driver became inebriated and several times ran the truck into the