(Sao Paulo, Brazil) The building of dams on rivers in southeastern Brazil has been an ongoing project to reduce periodic flooding in downstream population centers. An unanticipated result of the slower moving waterways has been a growth in piranha breeding areas and, consequently, an increase in the population of the flesh-eating fish.
According to Professor Ivan Sazima, a zoologist at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Sao Paulo, Brazil, damming of the rivers may cause a ten-fold jump in numbers of piranha. Logically, the numbers of piranha attacks on humans has risen noticeably in the past several years.
"Single bites are caused mainly by the people walking and wading in the waters nearby a piranha nest," says Professor Sazima.More information on the piranha problem appears in the scientific journal Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.
The fish usually bite their victims once, ripping a chunk out of the person and leaving a round, crater-shaped wound with accompanying loss of tissue and bleeding.
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