The largest river in the world is the Amazon. She is also recognized as the most dangerous. The reason for this is the abundance of various kinds of fauna, dangerous to human life.
Amazon predators
The Amazon is a South American river with a length of 6992.06 km. Its depth is about 50 m. The area of the Amazon basin is about the same as the area of the whole of Australia. In the vast body of water of this great river, many different living creatures coexist, most of which have not yet been studied by man. Of those that are known, some are mortal.
Bloodthirsty piranhas
Piranhas are small fish (their length is no more than 30 cm, and their weight is less than 1 kg), which instill fear even in crocodiles. The piranha's teeth are in the shape of triangles, and when they are closed, their upper jaw clearly enters the lower one, which provides a dead grip, from which prey cannot get out. A flock of piranhas is able to gnaw the carcass of an animal or a human body in a matter of minutes to the bone. In the waters of the Amazon, there are about 3,000 species of this bloodthirsty fish, many of which, by the way, are not dangerous to people.
Black caimans
Caimans are the main reptiles of the Amazon, one of the largest alligators in South America, their length reaches 4.5 m. And these predators pose a danger both to animals living in the river and on the banks, and to travelers. The main diet of black caimans is fish, in particular piranhas, aquatic vertebrates, sometimes they hunt large animals, livestock. There were also cases of attacks on people. The crocodile with its powerful jaws and huge tail is capable of severely crippling and killing a person.
Anaconda, or water boa
Anaconda is the world's largest snake, sometimes reaching 11-12 m in length. She spends almost all the time in the river, only occasionally crawling out onto the branches of nearby trees in order to bask in the sun. The water snake has no equal opponents; it feeds on various mammals, tapirs, agouti, water birds, caimans, and turtles. There were cases of eating it by large individuals of jaguars, as well as cases of cannibalism. Attacking with lightning speed, the boa constrictor wraps around its prey and strangles with its powerful body. Then, with a mouth that can stretch to incredible sizes, it slowly absorbs the carcass. There are not so many cases of anaconda attacks on humans, most of them can be explained by the fact that the snake mistakenly mistook people for its constant prey, or defended itself when it was hunted.
Other carnivorous animals of the Amazon
From the inhabitants of the Amazon, they also pose a great danger to people:
- river stingrays, which are the owners of a poisonous thorn on the tail, an animal who accidentally steps on a stingray can cause significant harm to a person;
- bull sharks are the most dangerous sharks in the world, most of all other fish attack people;
- electric eels, their special cells are capable of creating electric discharges with a power of 600 V;
- arapaimas - gigantic fish with "armored" scales and numerous teeth, which are located even on the tongue;
- the parasitic fish of Vandelia, there are cases when it got into the human urethra, such cases cannot do without surgical intervention.
