Piranhas are a tropical fish that are found in the freshwater rivers of South America. It’s from these rivers that many piranha legends have been developed, many of which include those about piranha attacks. And it’s these legends that have stemmed the misconception that piranhas are evil creatures, who will attack anything in its path.

Do Piranhas Really Attack?

Piranhas aren’t known especially for attacking people. Because they do eat meat and have exceptionally large and sharp teeth, they do prey on both larger and smaller fish and animals, but they will generally not attack humans.

This does not mean however, that a piranha will not bite a human. If a human goes into a piranha’s territory, especially if there are a large amount of piranhas grouped together, they will most likely attack humans that enter that area. Also, if a human gets too close to a piranha’s eggs, the piranha will also most likely attack, and they will be the most vicious about it then!

Attacking Each Other

It’s more common for piranhas to attack each other than it is for them to attack humans. Piranhas in a large group become extremely aggressive and are most likely to turn on each other. It’s not unusual to find several piranhas out of a group that have one eye missing, because they lost in a duel with another piranha.