The Red-Bellied Piranha: Deadly or Friendly

By: Hannah 

            What do you think of when you hear the word piranha? According to Sue Anne Zollinger in “Piranhas – Ferocious Fighter or Scavenging Softie?” most people think of the horror films version of piranha, fish with large, sharp teeth tearing a person apart after they fall into the water. Red-Bellied Piranhas are more than what is seen in a horror movie.

            According to Wikipedia, Seriously Fish, and WAZA (World Association of Zoos and Aquariums), the scientific classification for Red-Bellied Piranha is that they belong to the Family: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata, Class: Actinopterygii, Order: Characiformes, Family: Serrasalnidae, Genus: Pygocentrus (pygocentrus meaning ‘tail’ and kentron meaning ‘sharp point’), Species: P. nattereri (nattereri for an Australian naturalist from the 1800’s). They belong to the same family as pacu and tetras. They are fresh water fish that are omnivorous, scavengers.

            Red Bellied Piranha gets their name because their bellies are red. They also have broad, serrated, triangular, razor sharp teeth that make slicing chunks of fish free. Animal World said that red bellied piranha can reach up to 13 inches in the wild, but are smaller in an aquarium. The website Bristol Zoo said that red bellied piranhas can weigh up to a maximum of 3.5 kg. Baby red bellied piranhas have silver bodies with dark blotches. Red bellied piranhas get blackish spots behind the gills and the anal fin is usually black at the base, while the pectoral and pelvic fins vary from red to orange. It was also noted that males have a darker red belly than females.

            According to Seriously Fish, Wikipedia and Animal World, red-bellied piranhas live in tropical freshwater areas. These fish have a wide distribution throughout the Amazon and Orinco Basin Rivers in South America. Red-bellied Piranhas are found to be an abundant component of the fish in the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve on the flooded forest of the Amazon River according to Magurran and Queiroz. They have also been found in the waters of major rivers, like Rio Paraguay. They have also been found in white water streams of South America. The water in these areas is about 15 to 35 degrees Celsius.

            Although red-bellied piranha have been portrayed, in horror movies, as being blood thirsty killers who eat large animals and humans who stray into the water, they are actually omnivores and scavengers. Large piranha hunts for food in the dawn, late afternoon and early evening. Younger, smaller piranha hunts for food during the day and hide from the larger piranha that would eat them. According to Animal World, red-bellied piranhas are not picky eaters. Red-bellied piranhas tend to eat fish, molluscs, insects, crustaceans, snails, algae and other water plants. According to Seriously Fish, they will attack sick or dying fish, feed on fins from larger fish and scavenge carcasses. They will hide and chase some fish from vegetation in shallow waters. It is during the dry season, when food is scarce that shoals of piranha are known to attack and have feeding frenzies. It is rare, according to Magurran and Queiroz, for piranhas to attack large, healthy prey.

            According to Edda Kastenhuber and Stephan C. F. Neuhass, red-bellied piranhas can produce a wide variety of acoustic sounds. Red-bellied piranhas can use phonetic language such as “hums, growls, grunts, boat whistles, hoots chirps and many other sounds.” The red-bellied piranhas have two basic mechanisms to help generate sound. They use muscle contractions, a displacement in the swim bladder and a clicking of bony parts like teeth and fins. Sound making fish vocalize in a seductive manner during courtship and mating season. They make sounds to aggressively defend their territory and also for alerting to danger in their shoals. But it was noted that most of the vocalizations were heard only when the piranhas were captured in a hand or a net.

            According to Wikipedia, Margurran and Queiroz, some of the breeding habitats of the red-bellied piranha are unknown to researchers. Researchers say that red-bellied piranha behavior in nature has revealed certain behavioral patterns around their nesting sites. Adult piranhas will swim side by side in a small circle, sometimes swimming opposite directions. One female piranha can lay up to 5,000 eggs, which the male and female piranhas defend until the eggs hatch. Up to 90% of the eggs survive.

            Red-bellied piranhas form into shoals where the bigger piranhas are in the middle and the smaller piranhas are on the outside. According to Webster Dictionary, shoals are a pack of piranha all grouped together. According to Magurran and Gueiroz, red-bellied piranhas find their mates in their shoals. Their decision on who is in the shoal is based on the size of the piranhas. They also choose their mates depending on the sizes. When the water is high in the rivers, a shoal can reach up to 30 individual piranhas. Large red-bellied piranha showed a strong preference for large shoaling partners, while the smaller piranhas did not have a preference in the sizes of their partners.

            Red-bellied piranhas are known for their reputation for being ferocious carnivores.  According to Seriously Fish, Wikipedia, and WAZA, the red-bellied piranha reputation is only a Hollywood movie myth. Red-bellied piranhas only attack people when it is the dry season or they are provoked. According to Seriously Fish, the myth began when American President, Theodore Roosevelt made a visit to the Amazon in Brazil in 1913 and he witnessed an attack. Then a movie was made called “Piranha,” by Joe Dante, which has been compared to “Jaws.” These films and stories of large Piranha shoals attacking humans, just fuel the exaggerated and erroneous reputation of piranhas.

            During my research, I read a few articles where red-bellied piranhas were dumped into other fresh waters and then attacked humans. But these waters would become too cold for the piranhas to survive and were more than likely dumped from someone’s aquarium. It is because of these rare attacks and the fact that only a very well trained person should handle them, that the piranhas myth continues today.

Works Cited:

Animal World, Red Bellied Piranha, http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/characins/RedPiranha.php

Arkive.org – Red Bellied Piranha

Houston Zoo, http://www.houstonzoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Red-bellied-Piranha.pdf

Katenhuber, Edda; Stephan, C. F. Neuhauss; 20 December 2011, Current Biology; http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(11)01243-7

Magurran, Anne E; Helder L. Queiroz; University of St. Andrews, Scotland, “Partner Choice in Piranha Shoals”

The Nature Conservancy

Putz, Brian, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, “Pygecentrus Nattereri Red Bellied Piranha,” 10/17/2012

Queiroz, Helder Lima; Marcela B. Sobanski; Anne E. Magurran; “Reproductive strategies of Red-Bellied Piranha (Pygocentrus nattereri Kner, 1858) in the white waters of the Mamiraua flooded forest, central Brazilian Amazon”

Seriously Fish.com – Red Bellied Piranha

University of Zurich, Institute of Molecular Life Sciences; Neuroscience Center Zurich and Center for Integrative Human Physiology, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland, Current Biology, “Acoustic Communication: Sound Advice from Piranhas”

WAZA.org – Red Bellied Piranha

Wikipedia: Red Bellied Piranha

Zollinger, Sue Anne, “Piranha – Ferocious Fighter or Scavenging Softie?” 3 July 2009

Ben and Me Book Review

By Nicole

The title of the novel is Ben and Me. The author of Ben and Me is Robert Lawson. The story takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1745.

The main characters are Benjamin Franklin and Amos. The problems Amos has is to help his family get food so they can eat. He also has to free Sophia’s children and reunite her family. Ben’s problems are having to figure out how to get the heat into the middle of the room and how to protect houses and ships from lighting. Ben also wants to find out if lighting is the same as electricity.

An important choice Ben made was to go to France and ask for money for uniforms, powder, arms, and shoes. Another important choice was trying not to cause a war between America and Great Britain.

I liked Ben and Me because it tells the history of Benjamin Franklin and to know what happened during his time. I think people should read it because they can learn what happened during his time and learn how stuff came to be by enjoying it.

When Uncle Tim married Aunt Laura

by Esther

                When I first heard that Uncle Tim had finally proposed to Aunt Laura, I was more than happy. I was shouting, “Yay,” for so long and so loud for a day.

                Mom, Dad, Hannah, Nicole and I were going to Washington D.C. by a very, long car ride. We traveled through the back roads and mountains of West Virginia for a long time. 

                When we got to the hotel, I thought that it was an apartment. The name of the hotel is the Hyatt House. It had 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, and a living room. My mom and dad got their own bedroom and our own bathroom, so did us girls and there was a hot breakfast in the mornings.

                When we got to the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, where there was a patio party before we could go to the main party room. There were cocktails on the patio with Shirley Temples and pop. I tried lots of food like chicken on a stick and shrimp with cocktail sauce. I didn’t like the shrimp with cocktail sauce at all. They had a saxophone player playing songs that we haven’t heard before.

                When it was time to go down to the main party room, we were all divided to different tables by flowers names. My sisters and I got to sit with our cousins at the daisy table with a topiary dog. When the announcer said Uncle Tim and Aunt Laura names over the microphone “All stand up for the bride and groom, Tim and Laura.” Everyone was so happy for them, that they were cheering.

We ate lots of candy while we waited for the food to come out, (lots of pink candy for the matter of fact). There was lots of dancing on the dance floor; I danced to the party rock song. There was a photo booth where we all had fun with the pictures.

                It was a great time at the Willard Incontinent Hotel and Washington D.C because we got to tour D.C monuments and to see our cousins at the wedding reception.            

                               

                           

                               

               

Marian Anderson

by Hannah

     I want to tell you more about Marian Anderson and how her singing career got started. Marian Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial and the press asked, "How did your career get started?"
     "Well," Marian answered, "I'll tell you."
     When Marian Anderson was young, she sang with her family. Also, she sang at her church in the junior and senior choir. Her dad bought her a used piano, that she taught herself to play. Her church wanted to help her get farther and paid for her to be taught by vocal coaches.
     Marian Anderson traveled to different countries to sing to other people who enjoyed the music no matter what the color of the artist. When Marian returned to American she got an invitation to perform at Constitution Hall. When she got to the Hall, the DAR, who owned the Hall, took back the offer because Marian Anderson's color. Mrs. Roosevelt suggested that she sing at the Lincoln Memorial.
     "that's how my singing career got started, now any more questions?" Marian said. Marian Anderson got married and had a happy life.

Bullying

By Hannah Hofacre

               At some point in your life, you may have been bullied, been the bully or witnessed bullying. I was bullied for 5 years, and I know a few things about bullying. Most importantly, bullying hurts everyone and it needs to be stopped.

               Bullying is unwanted aggressive behavior found among kids, teens or adults. Bullying can happen anywhere: school, playground, bus, work or the computer.

                There are three types of bullying: verbal bullying, physical bullying, and social bullying. Verbal bullying involves name calling and insults. The physical bullying involves hitting, kicking, and spitting. The social bullying is cyber bullying, but social bullying involves leaving someone out on purpose and spreading rumors about someone.

                There are many accounts of bullying every day. I heard on the news that a 17 year old set fire to a 14 year old. The news reported that it was bullying. My sister, Esther, came home covered in spit. I always came home and I never talked to my mom, because I was bullied on the bus. I also heard that a friend of mine has been bullied, worse now in Jr. High School, than before.

                Bullying can hurt people so bad, that they can be depressed and sometimes the victims can kill themselves. Bullies are found to be dependent on drugs or alcohol when they are older. People who witness bullying are often found to need stimulants to get through a day, such as cigarettes.

                We can stop bullying if we stand together and show we are not afraid.

Sources:

Channel 12 News

www.stopbullying.gov

Conservation, Then and Now

By Hannah

                The U.S. Census Bureau stated that there were no more frontiers, in the 1890’s. People had felt that the land would go on forever. In their quest for land, they cut down trees without planting more to replace those they cut down, and they hunted and killed the buffalos almost to the point of extinction. The passenger pigeon has become extinct. This attitude is still in evidence today as people use energy that many feel cannot be replaced. We need to stop destroying and start reusing wherever possible.

                In the 1890’s, people would move into a new land, cut down the trees to use for building homes, fuel to heat their homes, or to cook their food. They would kill animals that came onto the land that they had planted, to keep the animals from destroying their crops. The people who lived on the frontier would kill a buffalo, but leave the skin, the bones and the meat. This killing would cause the buffalos to almost disappear from the frontier and the native peoples who depended upon it from having skins for homes, meat to eat and bones for tools.

                As the land became scarce, more people were willing to fight to get land. They were willing to destroy more trees and more animals to create a homestead. John Muir, who was a preservationist, wanted people to stop chopping down the trees and destroying the land and killing the animals. He wanted land put aside for people to see, to experience it as God had intended it to be enjoyed. President Lincoln signed a bill to protect Yosemite Valley in California. In 1870’s, President Grant signed a bill to save Yellowstone in Montana and Wyoming for the people. In 1889, President Harrison signed a bill to protect undeveloped lands that needed protection. In 1916, President Wilson created the National Park Service to protect all these lands from greedy individuals who wanted to take more land to get more money.

                Joy Hakim said that there are three kinds of people, Conservationists who want to use the land wisely and responsibly. Replacing trees as they cut trees down, protecting animals so that there will be more for when the future generations come along. Preservationists, who want to keep people from doing anything to the land. Not cutting down the trees, not allowing hunting of certain animals. They want things to be left just as they are. Others, who just want to take the land and use it to make more money for themselves.

                Today, we still have groups who have differing views of the land and how it should be used. We have people who don’t want the land used at all. Leave it just as it is, for the future generations. They don’t want people to hunt deer or elk or moose, for fear that they could be hunted to extinction, again. There are people who say, that if you are replacing as you go, you can cut down trees and use it for the things you need, a home or a fire. They feel that you can hunt, if you have a license and only take what you need, not hunt just for the pleasure of saying you are hunting. There are others who feel that this is their land and that they should be able to drill for oil on their land, or they should be able to cut all the trees down, without replanting or anything else. There are so many ways that we can help preserve and conserve. We can use bottles for water over and over again, without throwing out the plastic bottles. We can use solar energy and wind energy to heat our homes. We can recycle things that we use so that we don’t need to use more resources. It just takes us working together to make things better for future people.

Sources:

www.conservation.org

http://endangeredspeciesearth.com/american-buffalo.html

Hakim, Joy, A History of US, copyright 2011, K12, Inc.

www.sierraclub.org

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/energy-conservation

www.wikipedia.org

African Painted Dogs

By Nicole

                African Painted Dogs were introduced at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden over the summer and I have become more interested in them. They are on the endangered species list and there are only about 6,600 left in the world.

                The African Painted Dog is also called the Cape Hunting Dog or its scientific name is Lycaon Pictus. They are a canid of Central to South Africa.

                The African Painted Dog can live about ten years. They grow to about 2.5 to 4 feet tall. They weigh about 44 to 71 pounds. Thane Maynard, of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, said that “They are the most colorful of all wild dogs.”

                They are endangered because of a loss of habitat, human persecution and diseases, some that come from domesticated animals. They are a social animal and hunt in packs. They are a fierce predator. They primarily hunt antelope, warthogs, hares and other small animals. They are diurnal hunters, hunting primarily during the day time. They have few natural predators, like the lion. Hyenas, a kleptoparasite, depend on the African Painted Dogs for their meals.

                 They hunt in packs of about six animals and they chase their prey to exhaustion. When they bring a carcass back to the pack (about ten animals) they let the young eat first.

                I feel that it is through understanding the African Painted Dog that we can help save it from extinction. It is a very interesting animal to watch at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.

Sources:

http://animals.nationalgeorgraphic.com

Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Cincinnati, OH

Gardner, Jane P., African Wild Dogs, copyright 2014, Bearport Publishing Company, Inc., New York

www.kidsplanet.org

www.wikipedia.org