Top

Red Belly Piranha

October 14, 2011 by · Comments Off on Red Belly Piranha 

Red Belly PiranhaRed Belly Piranha, Researchers studying red-bellied piranhas, which are among the few dangerous to humans, have found that routinely make distinctive barking, croaking sounds and clicks.

Using underwater microphones, scientists recorded the sounds of the fish makes when facing each other.

Their results, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the team said each of the three sounds contained a different message, and the fish, often chose to intimidate opponents rather than attack.

The National Geographic Daily News reported that researchers already knew that piranhas, which have a voracious appetite for meat could produce sounds, but I have never studied their meaning.

One of the principal investigators of the study, Dr. Eric Parmentier at the University of Liege, Belgium, said the team was curious to know more.

“We wanted to know how they do and what these sounds might mean to other fish.”

So the team put a hydrophone in a tank of piranhas and filmed them interacting.

The BBC reported:

They recorded three different sounds. The first was that the fish barking occurs when you “sign” to each other – facing each other face to face, but the struggle.

The other two were a drum beat like drums, which occurs when the piranhas were chasing each other, and a soft growl that made the biting each other. These fights were usually over food.
Dr. Parmentier, said that once scientists are able to properly understand the behavior associated with the sounds “that might be able to hear the sea and the fishermen explain:. ‘Now is not the best time to start fishing “

Bottom