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River.Monsters.S01E05.Amazon.Assassins
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00:00The Amazon River is known for containing an evil collection of murderous beasts.
00:12But there's one family of fish living here that could write a serial killer's handbook.
00:17Their methods are so bloodthirsty and varied.
00:21I can see from here the way they are just literally drilling their way into that fish.
00:25Members of the catfish family have reportedly swallowed people whole.
00:30They've eaten them alive from within, and even gruesomely penetrated individuals in the most intimate of places.
00:38I'm Jeremy Wade, biologist and extreme angler.
00:43And I'm on the hunt for these killer catfish to determine if this family are the Amazon's ultimate river monsters.
00:51Now imagine that in an orifice.
01:00In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, a truck makes a solemn path towards the local police station.
01:17It carries a macabre load, the corpse of a man.
01:26But the circumstances of his death were bizarre in the extreme.
01:35Fearing accusations of murder, the fishermen have taken the corpse to the police station in the exact state in which they found it.
01:42Just a pair of legs protruding from the mouth of a vast catfish.
01:55Could this wild tail emerging from the Amazon really be true?
01:59Or is this just a made-up fisherman's tail, and no more real than this photo-recreation of what it might have looked like?
02:11I've faced many of the largest and most feared creatures in the waterways of this world.
02:16And I've discovered that you don't need to swim in the sea to encounter a man-eater.
02:22Rivers harbour just as many monsters.
02:26Ask people what is the most feared fish in the Amazon, and they'll undoubtedly say piranha.
02:32Electric eel.
02:34Or even stingray.
02:37But I've come to Brazil to find out if catfish are actually the worst of the lot.
02:42A true mafia-style family of killers at large.
02:47And I've tracked down Sir Valmir, one of the witnesses to this bizarre murder, to hear his story.
02:56Basically, there's a bit of a frenzy of fishing activity going on.
02:59One of the nets got stuck on a rock.
03:01And in that situation, you know, the only thing you can do if you're not going to rip the net, you know, you've got to go down and get it off.
03:06So this one fisherman dived in to free the net.
03:12However, what happened was that, you know, he didn't come up.
03:17The net came up, no fish in it, no fisherman.
03:23Nothing more was seen until about four hours later, when suddenly this huge fish appeared on the surface.
03:29And it was thrashing around because the fish was actually itself in trouble, actually choking.
03:34The fisherman was actually half inside the mouth of the fish, just the legs of the fisherman sticking out.
03:39And what happened then was that the fisherman all went to try and get the fish to net it.
03:43And he said, you know, because it was obviously quite tired, it was quite easy, just one net.
03:47They got it in and clubbed it to death.
03:49They left his body inside the fish and then went to Manaus as fast as possible.
03:57Obviously, you know, get it to the police station to make sure that there's no suspicion that it was a case of murder or anything like that.
04:03The murderer was identified as a piraiba, the largest species of catfish found here in the Amazon.
04:12So that fish could have been about 500 pounds.
04:14I mean, we are talking some seriously, seriously big fish here.
04:17The mouth, about 40 centimetres across, so that's a couple of foot across.
04:28But he says, you know, it opens up more, so sort of maybe two and a half foot.
04:32This was a pretty monstrous fish and a pretty horrific end for that particular fisherman.
04:39He says there are people disappearing all the time and you never find a trace of them.
04:44You know, you don't find the body, you don't find bones, you don't find anything.
04:49Even having heard this horrific story from an eyewitness, someone who is actually there,
04:53you know, seeing this monstrous fish with the fisherman's feet just poking out of the mouth,
04:58I still find it really hard to believe that there are fish here capable of doing that.
05:02And what I want to do is actually see with my own eyes how big the fish are in these Amazon rivers.
05:07I think the first thing I've got to do is go back to where this story all started
05:12and actually go myself to the scene of the crime.
05:15Valmere talked of seeing a 500-pound PiraÃba, which seems extreme,
05:24but photos do exist of some pretty large catfish.
05:29There are three species of giant catfish found here in the Amazon.
05:33The jaou, the red-tailed catfish and the PiraÃba.
05:38This catch was reported to be nearly eight foot long and some 350 pounds.
05:45But maybe, as Valmi suggests, there are even bigger monsters out there.
05:49And if I follow his leads, perhaps I'll get to catch a man-eater of my own.
05:58After travelling for 12 hours, I reach my destination,
06:02a river junction up a tributary of the Amazon.
06:05As far as I can gather, this is the scene of the crime.
06:10And what's interesting is this is a very obvious meeting of the waters.
06:14You can see it so clearly because the two rivers that meet here are different colours.
06:18One is muddy white water, one is black water.
06:21According to the locals, large catfish wait in ambush at river junctions like this
06:26to predate on smaller fish travelling downriver.
06:29Because I'm after a pretty monstrous fish, I'm using monstrous tackle.
06:33I've got a huge forged steel hook on the end attached to a length of wire.
06:38And then I've got about 300 yards of very strong line.
06:46And this rod, you'd normally only see this on a boat out in the open ocean,
06:50the kind of thing you'd use to catch marlin, tuna, that kind of thing.
06:53But I'm using this stuff in fresh water.
06:58People only think of predatory fish living in the sea.
07:01But here I am about a thousand miles from the ocean,
07:04staking out a crime scene to catch a man-eater.
07:14Something down there.
07:15Just grabbed the bait, bent the rod, and then let go.
07:26That's a fish on. That's a fish on.
07:29It's taking line.
07:30Taking line.
07:33Feels pretty sizeable.
07:35It's going to be a little bit decisive and brutal now.
07:42The fish doesn't want to know.
07:43It doesn't want to know.
07:44Going down.
07:59This is coming up in the water.
08:00Up in the water.
08:00There it is.
08:02It's a good size.
08:05This fish is not the Piraiba I was hoping for.
08:08But the Jau is a catfish.
08:10And some fishermen claim it can be just as dangerous as the larger Piraiba.
08:14But it's not finished.
08:16Doesn't like the side of the boat at all.
08:18It has a reputation for being so strong on the end of the line
08:21that some people will tell you that it has dragged fishermen down into the depths.
08:27This is about 80 pounds.
08:2880, 90 pounds.
08:30It's a good size fish.
08:31The hook hold looks good.
08:33We might even be able to land it on land.
08:35After 20 minutes of hard struggle, I have the better of it.
08:42And my goodness, feeling the strength of this thing.
08:44I wouldn't want that around my ankle or, you know,
08:48I wouldn't want to be headfirst down the mouth or something like that either.
08:51It looks a really sinister fish.
09:09that dark black colour
09:11and it gets that from
09:13it gets that from
09:15living down in the lightless zone
09:18deep in the rocky pools
09:19where it just blends in with the background
09:21and particularly looking at it from here
09:23just the shape of it, it's a great big mouth
09:26large head
09:27very muscular midriff
09:29and then just tapering off
09:32into this very chunky
09:34powerful propulsion unit
09:36Just looking at these long whiskers
09:39that they use to probe their surroundings
09:41it's pretty obvious where catfish
09:43get their name
09:44So this is a real
09:46this is a fish that's adapted for strong water
09:49very strong fish
09:50and if one of those was to grab you
09:53there's not a great deal you could do about it
09:59Time to release this animal
10:02So the scene of the crime
10:07may not have yielded the man-eating Piraiba I was after
10:11but this impressive jaou shows that there are some large catfish down there
10:15Oh, wanting to go already
10:18Look at that, wanting to go already
10:19That's good
10:21That's good, there it goes
10:23Oh, quite a fish
10:26If I can get a big catfish here
10:28at this minor river junction
10:30then perhaps
10:32if I fish the largest river junction in the world
10:35the meeting of the waters near Manaus
10:37I'll land the mother of all catfish
10:41I'm on a mission to hook the largest catfish in the Amazon
10:56the Piraiba
10:57as I want to prove that the stories of them swallowing fishermen
11:01are more than just fishermen's tails
11:03and after catching a large jaou at a river junction
11:08I think I know just the place to catch a monster
11:11This is it
11:13This is the meeting of the waters
11:14This is the black water of the Rio Negro
11:17coming down here
11:18mixing with the white muddy water of the Rio Solimoines
11:21and together they form the mighty Amazon
11:24and this has to be
11:25probably the biggest river junction in the world
11:28and everybody says that the big catfish
11:30they love river junction
11:31so this place has to be a good bet
11:33for the mother of all catfish
11:35The point where these two rivers meet
11:41is more than a mile wide
11:43over 200 feet deep in places
11:46and for almost another four miles
11:48these two massive waterways refuse to merge
11:51due to their different speeds, temperatures
11:53and sediment contents
11:55Giulio Cavalcanti has caught a 211 pound Piraiba
12:01at the meeting of the waters
12:02but on another occasion he nearly died here
12:05when the line wrapped around his body
12:07and started to pull him out of the boat
12:09he had to cut himself free with this very knife
12:12Giulio credits his fishing success
12:15to a secret bait formula
12:16that he wraps around a hook
12:18seals in a tin can
12:20and leaves to bake in the sun for three days
12:23Oh dear
12:27I think most of the fish in this river
12:30are going to know that stuff is in there
12:32Look here
12:33That
12:35That just looks so
12:41I've never seen anything quite like that
12:48but it's very good
12:50The fish really likes it
12:52Right
12:53The fish... the fish like it
12:55The fish like it
12:56This is the guts, the by-products of eight chickens
13:02so the entire intestines of one chicken
13:05is about that long
13:06wound round
13:07and you've got eight entire intestinal tracts of chickens
13:13to make up that bait
13:14I think with this now
13:17I have to be ready to go fishing
13:19I think with this now
13:20I have to be ready to go fishing
13:25Giulio reckons that once the sun sets
13:27and night falls
13:28the catfish come out to feed
13:30That's the bait on a huge hook
13:34Lump of lead to keep it down
13:36I'll feed this over the side
13:37I've got 30 foot of iron cable
13:40Feels good, the monsters could be on the move
13:42How's this for float fishing?
13:44I've got a barrel on here
13:45I mean this is a Jaws moment
13:46if ever there was one
13:47I mean this is a Jaws moment
13:48if ever there was one
13:57The bait's out, the engine's cut
13:58it's now just a case of being quiet
14:00and just drifting down with the current
14:06But being out here after dark
14:08also increases the risks
14:11Here you've not only got a very very powerful fish
14:13that might hang on to the end of the line
14:14you've also got to keep an eye out for the weather
14:17and also, this is a very very busy waterway
14:20there's going to be boats
14:21big barges, all sorts of stuff
14:23and they'll just run you over
14:24if you give them a chance
14:25if you don't get out of the way
14:26and 30 foot below all that
14:27is my bait
14:34The water underneath me could be 200 feet deep
14:37but the Piraiba, whose name means
14:39mother of all the fishes
14:41is totally at home here
14:47the sea
14:49is not going anywhere
14:50to be like
14:51all the fishes
14:53and she's got the sun
14:54and there's going to be a different
14:55weather
14:56With a lightning-conducting rod in my hands, I'm easily the highest point in this wide
15:18stretch of river, so I decide to call it a day before that storm gets any closer.
15:25Well, nothing came for that bait, and I don't know, maybe I can't blame them.
15:35Either it's just not my night, or the fact that it is so close to a big city means that
15:40the fish have all been fished out. There is a huge fishing fleet operating from Manaus,
15:46and this is right on the doorstep. Perhaps I need to go further away from civilisation
15:51if I'm to get the mother of all the catfish.
15:58I head into the dark heart of the Amazon, up a distant tributary of the main river,
16:05to see if that tactic changes my luck. Maybe here I'll catch my man-eating Piraiba.
16:14Head down, head down, head down, head down, head down.
16:17Don't get spine down!
16:18Could this be the river monster I'm after? But who'll win this battle? Me, or the fish?
16:34What is the worst thing that has ever happened to me on a fishing trip? A, I've been in a
16:37A, I've been in a plane crash, B, I've caught malaria, or C, I've been arrested as a spy.
16:52I asked what is the worst thing that has ever happened to me on a fishing trip.
16:56The answer is all three.
16:58I survived a plane crash unscathed in the Amazon.
17:00I caught malaria and nearly died in the Congo.
17:03And I was arrested and interrogated as a suspected spy on the Thai-Laos border.
17:12I'm here in the Amazon, investigating a family of killer catfish.
17:17It's taking a line. It's a strong fish.
17:19And I think I've hooked a Piraiba.
17:21Come around, I've got to come around, I've got to come around.
17:23The largest catfish species found here.
17:27This is a good-sized fish. I haven't seen it yet.
17:33Look at that.
17:37That is actually not the fish I want.
17:39That is a huge red-tailed catfish.
17:43I want the white, streamlined, shark-like Piraiba.
17:48But this thing, my goodness, this is a good size.
17:50This is a very good size.
17:52Ah!
17:53Now that this fish is in the boat, it is pumping air, not water, over its gills.
18:15Creating these strange sounds.
18:17That is a big old catfish.
18:24And it's getting me in training for the Piraiba.
18:26The only thing is, too many more experiences like this one,
18:29and I just won't have any energy for a fish that's bigger than this.
18:32And, I mean, this thing is just a huge head, huge bony head,
18:39tapering off into this leathery body.
18:41And a great big, wide mouth there.
18:45Without any teeth as such, but it's got real good grasping pads.
18:50Unlike a shark that can bite its prey in half,
18:53catfish have to swallow it whole.
18:55So if they are overly ambitious, they will choke.
18:59But this fish has a different problem.
19:01Inside its mouth is a parasitic bloodsucker.
19:05Another one here.
19:07And that is absolutely engorged, absolutely engorged with blood.
19:11The blood of this poor catfish.
19:14This tiny parasite, the candiru, and this vast predator,
19:19are both from the mafia-like family of catfish.
19:22This is pretty disgusting.
19:24I don't know if I can get hold of it, because they're very slippery.
19:27I need more fingernails.
19:28OK, look, there we go.
19:30So there we go, before and after.
19:33This one's fed.
19:36This one's still lean and hungry.
19:39And as I'll find out, it's these small guys you have to watch out for,
19:44as this parasite is one of the cruelest catfish I'll meet.
19:49There we go.
19:53OK.
19:54OK.
19:54That was nice to catch that.
20:01Not the fish I want, but, you know, that's a real monster in its own right.
20:06The candiru usually targets a big fish as its host, drinking blood from its gills.
20:15But occasionally they make mistakes.
20:18This has resulted in one of the most infamous legends ever to emerge from the Amazon.
20:23A man urinating in the river who has a fish swim up his penis.
20:27Yet for one gentleman, this urban myth became reality.
20:32Luckily, he was able to make it to this surgery in Manaus, where he was treated by Dr. Anwar Samad.
20:38He had actually had this fish inside him for four days, and the reason there was such a delay was because he actually lived a long way, you know, in the interior, away from the city.
20:51He had a very, very swollen bladder, he was bleeding, general fever, swollen testicles, you know, generally in a very bad way.
21:04E o peixe caminhou lá dentro, como se tivesse caminhado com as barbatanas, caminhou lá dentro.
21:09O peixe não estava visÃvel.
21:11Ele tinha essas pequenas espinhas nas gillflapas, então ele estava quase trabalhando em seu caminho assim.
21:18Ele teria sepulso tão longe quanto a espÃncter, ao que ponto o peixe estava, aparentemente, tentando sepulhar seu caminho fora.
21:26Em vez de apenas sepulhar a urethra, ele estava começando a sepulhar.
21:30Então, esse cara, obviamente, estava com muita dor.
21:33Quando nós passamos o endoscópio, esse aparelho entra direto no pênis, passamos o endoscópio, percebemos 12 centÃmetros.
21:4112 centÃmetros.
21:42What was done, first of all, was that the endoscope was put in the end of his penis into the urethra.
21:48The endoscope was equipped with a camera, and this is the actual footage from that operation.
21:54They were expecting to find a little fish.
21:57What they found, instead, was something that went, you know, almost from the entrance of the urethra all the way back to the sphincter.
22:04They're talking about something five or six inches.
22:07So, you know, not exactly a little fish, quite a substantial animal.
22:11Kandiru locate their hosts by following the trail of dilute ureia that fish excrete from their gills.
22:19This could explain this Kandiru's mistake.
22:23I go in search of its unfortunate victim to reintroduce him to the actual fish that swam up his urine stream.
22:31Having heard a horrific account of a fish entering a man's penis,
22:50I manage not only to track down the victim,
22:53but I take him back to the actual scene of the assault on his manhood.
22:57to relive the events that have haunted him since that day.
23:03This is a little bit of a bug.
23:05Ah, I see.
23:06This is a motor?
23:07Yes.
23:09OK, so it's 11 years ago.
23:12It's in this very spot.
23:14Silvio and some friends were in the water down there.
23:16He gave me a dose of a bug.
23:18I was going to go up.
23:19I was going to go up.
23:21And after a little period of time, Silvio felt the need to urinate, as happens.
23:28He knew the story about the Kandiru, so he actually sort of took himself partially out of the water.
23:39While he was relieving himself, suddenly he said, you know, he just had a bit of a shock.
23:43And, you know, the first thing he knew was that the fish was already, you know, inside.
23:47Only, you know, just the end of its tail was out.
23:49I tried to grab hold of it, but it's a very smooth fish, but like a bar of soap.
23:57No good, you know, no success pulling it out.
23:59So basically just ran up onto the bank to try and get some help.
24:01I decided to throw a net out to see if I can catch one of these critters.
24:07Here we go.
24:10This is almost exactly what Silvio described.
24:13You know, something going in one direction and just not wanting to come into reverse at all.
24:17Look at that.
24:19I can actually feel its spines digging in when it does that.
24:22It was actually walking using its head.
24:24Now imagine that in an orifice.
24:27This fish is just leaking blood.
24:28It's not this fish's blood.
24:30It's something it's been feeding on.
24:31It is just an absolute nightmare.
24:34You know, a real sort of vampire fish, this thing.
24:37A fish like this may have entered Silvio in search of a blood meal,
24:40but little did it know that its mistake would result in an unprecedented medical procedure
24:46lasting two hours.
24:48The first thought was to, a bit like a hook that's got a barb on it,
25:01actually pulling it back the way it went in is not always a good idea.
25:04He was thinking of actually sort of coming in from the side,
25:07coming in from the perineum and actually trying to sort of pull the fish out head first.
25:12But he thought that because, you know, it had been such a long time in there,
25:15they would actually, and also the other fish were starting to rot a bit,
25:18maybe try and pull it out with the endoscope, you know, out tail first the way that it went in.
25:31The tail of the fish was about here, about an inch in,
25:36and so the head of it would have been somewhere like here.
25:40And then what happened was that the pincers were gradually, you know,
25:44manipulated out of the hole here.
25:47There we go.
25:48Grabbed hold of the fish just in front of the tail.
25:54And then, using the camera, and then the whole apparatus just gradually,
25:59gradually, very delicately moved out.
26:01Apparently, it wasn't necessary to pull with a certain amount of force,
26:18but feeling that it's not doing any damage.
26:20Unfortunately, you know, it did come out eventually.
26:24The fish was sent to the National Institute of Amazonian Research
26:29to be formally identified,
26:33thus confirming, after centuries of speculation,
26:36that a fish has entered a human in the most intimate of places.
26:41This is a somewhat momentous and possibly delicate occasion.
26:45I'm bringing Silvio back to meet his fish.
26:48This one.
26:51Silvio, is this here?
26:52Yes.
26:53Yes.
26:57This is actually the first time since he had the surgery
27:00that Silvio has seen this fish, this very fish.
27:03I just asked Silvio if he would like to handle it.
27:15I mean, very, very definite no.
27:18I think once was enough.
27:20So maybe if I leave it in my hand.
27:21But I'm quite struck by how large it is.
27:24It's big, right?
27:25It's not a fish.
27:26It's big.
27:27You know, he's looking at it now, thinking, you know,
27:35I didn't realize it was that big.
27:37I thought it was smaller.
27:38It really does sort of beg a belief
27:40that something of that size could burrow into you.
27:48So is the candiru the worst of all the fish in the Amazon?
27:53A catfish of such vile reputation
27:55that none can surpass it.
27:59Dr. Lucia Rapp, the curator of the collection here,
28:02wants to show me another catfish species
28:04that is potentially even more horrific
28:07than the blood-sucking candiru.
28:09So what was the case that you heard about?
28:11We had a situation here recently.
28:14We received a visit of a doctor.
28:15He came with some images of two corpses, two men.
28:19He believed that they were shot
28:21because they have those very round holes on the body.
28:24He started to dissect the corpse
28:26and saw that it was not gunshots.
28:27The corpse were hollow already inside without any organs.
28:31Wow.
28:31I'm just trying to imagine being a pathologist
28:33and you brought a corpse.
28:35There's what looks like bullet holes.
28:37You start to dissect the body
28:38and the body is hollow.
28:41The organs have been removed.
28:42And there was any kind of bullet
28:44or something inside the corpse.
28:45It's just the fishes.
28:47So he realized that the fishes got inside the bodies
28:49and eaten the organs inside.
28:53The fish was identified as a close catfish relative
28:56of the blood-sucking candiru
28:57called the candiru asu.
29:01Would they have been dead when the fish got in?
29:04Well, they suspect that the man might be even alive
29:07because he saw the structure of the flesh
29:11and they were eaten from the inside.
29:13And they probably died from that, right?
29:15It's not going to be alive for very long
29:17with all that going on inside.
29:18Yeah, that's for sure.
29:19Well, if you are alive,
29:20if you feel the fish,
29:21you can just remove it.
29:22Yes.
29:23But if you are, for example,
29:25drunk or ill or something,
29:28you may not have enough strength to resist them.
29:32Imagine a whole bunch of these fishes
29:34attacking you at once.
29:35Not a very pleasant thought
29:36if you're going for a little swim in the Amazon.
29:41Having heard this gruesome tale,
29:43I decide to visit the city morgue
29:45to see if I can track down any more details.
29:53I think it's all very well
29:55having a certain scientific curiosity
29:57about some of these bizarre and gruesome deaths,
30:01but actually seeing the people waiting outside here
30:05who have come basically to identify bodies,
30:08you know, it becomes much more personal.
30:12And, you know, I'm not, to be honest,
30:14totally prepared for what I'm going to sort of hear
30:17or even see in there.
30:20A little bit sort of uneasy and uncomfortable about it,
30:22but, yeah, time to go anyway.
30:45I've come to the Manaus morgue
30:47to investigate an incident
30:49where a human was eaten from within
30:51by a catfish.
30:54Dr. Elizabeth Bezerra
30:56has dealt with several cases like this.
30:59She was the first pathologist
31:01to recognize this bizarre behavior
31:02and present it to the outside world.
31:05And they were destroyed, literally,
31:08escalated by this fauna.
31:11Apparently, Mondays are the worst days
31:14for bodies coming in in this state.
31:18People go out, picnics,
31:19having a drink on the weekend.
31:21They fall in the water,
31:22they disappear,
31:23and then Mondays,
31:24the bodies come to the surface.
31:26So, I mean, it sounds like, you know,
31:37we're not just talking about one or two animals.
31:39The most that Dr. Elizabeth
31:42has actually taken from a corpse
31:43or found inside
31:44is more than a hundred of these fish.
31:46So, these fish are sort of purpose-built
31:58for the task, it appears.
32:00Cylindrical body,
32:01very smooth and slimy,
32:03and then they have this mouth
32:05that when it opens,
32:06it produces a circular bite.
32:09These are actual photographs
32:11from the morgue
32:12that show the gunshot wound-like holes.
32:15And in some cases,
32:17the fish still inside the human corpse.
32:25The body is literally eaten from the inside,
32:28just the bones and some skin remains,
32:30so it's, you know,
32:33really quite a horrifying thing to visualise.
32:39Unlike the harmless catfish of the US,
32:41Amazon catfish are proving to be
32:43a diverse group of gruesome killers.
32:46And having heard this grisly story,
32:48I'm strangely drawn to this macabre fish.
32:51I'm keen to see a live one in action.
32:55But I don't think I'll be using
32:56a human corpse as bait.
32:58The thought of maybe more than a hundred of these
33:01boring into a human body,
33:02I mean, they really are flesh-eating monsters.
33:05It's not often you use a big fish
33:12to catch a small fish,
33:14but after just two hours,
33:15it's definitely worked.
33:17Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, what was that?
33:19What was that?
33:21I don't know the scientific name
33:23for all the scavengers
33:24at this gruesome picnic.
33:26The locals call these
33:27musun, or snakefish.
33:30There's actually something
33:31a bit different in there.
33:34If I can get it out.
33:36I don't really want to shove my hand in there.
33:38There, there, there, there, there, there, there.
33:39There, there, just hold him.
33:42There we go.
33:44So this is the kandiru asu.
33:45This is the fish that
33:46bores holes in the body
33:48and then devours from the inside out.
33:50And it was this fish
33:52that they retrieved
33:53from those corpses in the morgue.
33:55This, this was a heavy fish
33:58when it went in.
33:59Nothing left inside.
34:01In fact, if I,
34:01I'll just rip it open a little bit.
34:03The kandiru asu
34:04makes no distinction
34:06between human flesh
34:07and that of any other animal
34:08floating in the Amazon.
34:10Just like a hollow case of skin
34:13with the remnants of the bone inside.
34:16This is almost exactly, you know,
34:19what the autopsy report was
34:21in the morgue,
34:22except, you know,
34:22in that case,
34:23we were talking about a human being.
34:27This water is obviously filled
34:29with flesh eaters,
34:30so I try and entice them
34:32to feed out of my hand.
34:35I'm actually just on somebody's house here
34:37and I'm just dangling this fish off the side
34:40and these kandiru are just attacking
34:41right on the surface
34:42and that, you know,
34:42I can see from here
34:43the way they are just literally
34:45drilling their way into that fish.
34:49It's like a crocodile death roll
34:51and no doubt the cause
34:52of the gunshot-like entry holes
34:54in the corpses.
34:56I'm not trying to lift them out, actually.
34:58I'm not trying to lift...
34:59Look at that.
35:01Hey, that's one there.
35:03And back in the water.
35:04Apparently, these things
35:05will give you a bite
35:05just like a piranha.
35:07Look at that.
35:07That's a very, very definite cut.
35:10And this is all the work
35:12of the kandiru.
35:13The Amazon River
35:14is a scavenger's paradise.
35:16It's like an acid bath
35:17here for corpses.
35:19And again,
35:19it's members of the catfish family
35:21that are one of the principal operators
35:23cleaning up the bodies.
35:27But as I continue my quest,
35:29I witness an astounding
35:30act of cannibalism.
35:32Good grief!
35:34And finally track down
35:35my river monster.
35:37That's a pirayuba.
35:38It's a pirayuba.
35:38I've seen that here
35:54in the Amazon,
35:55small catfish have
35:56a frightening ability
35:57to attack us
35:58where it hurts most
35:59and also to dispose
36:01of our bodies.
36:02But what about
36:03the large catfish?
36:05I started this quest
36:06with a tale of a man-eater.
36:07Can they really swallow
36:09something as big as themselves?
36:13I need to resume my hunt
36:15for the biggest catfish
36:16in the Amazon,
36:17the pirayuba.
36:19But no sooner
36:20have I cast into the water
36:21when my fishing guide,
36:23Flavio,
36:23spots a truly graphic example
36:25of over-ambitious
36:26Amazon predation.
36:28Oh, look!
36:29Something that immediately
36:30reminds me of the man
36:31half-swallowed
36:32by a fish.
36:34We've just seen this
36:35payara floating down the river,
36:36quite a big one,
36:37still alive,
36:38we thought it was dead
36:38to start with.
36:40On investigation,
36:41it's got another one
36:42down its throat
36:43and Flavio's just
36:44grabbing hold of the tail of it
36:46and pulling it out.
36:46Here we go.
36:47Look at it,
36:47here's the tail
36:48of another fish.
36:50So this fish
36:51almost choked to death
36:52on something
36:53just too big
36:54to swallow, really.
36:56If we can get
36:56the other fish out,
36:58it might survive,
36:59but as it is...
37:01Good grief!
37:04The size of that...
37:05Look at that!
37:07Just look at...
37:08Good grief!
37:10Look at the size
37:11of the fish
37:12that that other fish
37:14swallowed.
37:15So that's the meal,
37:16the one that's looking
37:16slightly worse for wear,
37:18and this is the greedy one
37:20that swallowed it,
37:21which might now recover.
37:25Hee hee hee!
37:28This remarkable act
37:29of cannibalism
37:30is just as ambitious
37:31as the catfish
37:32that tried to swallow a man.
37:35Maybe in these murky waters,
37:37accidentally biting off
37:38more than you can chew
37:39is a common occurrence.
37:43Oh, loco!
37:49Reinvigorated by this
37:50chance encounter,
37:51I'm back on my quest
37:52in earnest.
37:56Oh!
37:58Just trying a different spot here.
38:00Got a rapid at the top there,
38:02and then there's a deep
38:03hole with a clean bottom,
38:05and this is, you know,
38:07a particular place
38:08for Piraeba.
38:09I've had a few fish recently
38:11that have taken the bait
38:11and I just haven't hooked up,
38:13or they've come off.
38:13Oh, it's come off.
38:19So what I'm doing,
38:20I'm trying something
38:21a little bit clever.
38:21I'm putting a double hook rig on
38:23so the idea is
38:24it doesn't have to take
38:24the entire bait,
38:25even if it just nips
38:26the tail of it
38:27or the body of it.
38:29I should hook up,
38:30get a good hook hold.
38:31Oh, okay.
38:34To the front of the boat.
38:35Ouch.
39:05Something down there, just grab the bait, bend the rod and then let go.
39:30That is a fish on. I think it's coming towards me. What I don't want is the hook to come out like it has been done.
39:44Feels strange. There are people who hook these fish and they're literally on for hours and it gets dark and they give up and they cut the line.
39:55I've come far too far to give up. So even though my muscles are aching, I carry on.
40:01It's a very fast sort of pulsing so it's not a throb, throb, throb, throb. This is a big fish. I can only bully to a certain extent.
40:13Strong, strong, strong fish. Strong fish.
40:19After a struggle of nearly half an hour, I have the better of it.
40:23There it is. That's the fish. There's the fish. There's the fish.
40:27Here we go. This is the one I wanted. This is the Piraiba, the real monster of the Amazon.
40:43This fish is growling at me. Big old mouth on there. Heavy, heavy fish. I can hardly hold this up. My arms are pretty shot anyway.
40:52No, I can feel the fish flexing. It's about to kick.
40:58And this is the one that people say when it gets big enough, it goes after people as well.
41:06Looks a bit like a shark and it has a reputation to match.
41:09This is a big one, but they do go bigger. They do go bigger. This one, I don't know, possibly about 80 pounds.
41:14I mean, you know, this is a man size fish, but they go bigger than man size.
41:18They go a size big enough to swallow a man.
41:21And a streamlined fish. Smooth skin, no scales, but it's a very streamlined catfish.
41:26Most catfish are pretty slobby. They mope around on muddy bottoms.
41:30But this is a fish of fairly fast current, and I can just feel that muscle flexing.
41:35That's a lovely, lovely result. And am I tired? Am I tired?
41:39What I've got to do, though, is remember that the fish is as tired as I am.
41:42So although I want to admire it out of the water, I've got to get it back and think of the fish's recovery as well.
41:51Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Oh. Oh. Oh.
42:14And he's gone. What a river monster.
42:18In my investigation, I've seen how, in these murky waters, catfish sometimes make mistakes.
42:27I've seen how catfish make no distinction between human and other flesh.
42:33And I've seen firsthand how, in the Amazon, fish will bite off more than they can chew.
42:39So if you combine these findings, and imagine this Piraiba three times the size, still well within the maximum recorded weight,
42:48then just ask yourself, are those accounts of fish swallowing people just fishermen's tails?
42:55I came here in search of a man-eating fish.
42:59But instead, I've found a mafia-like family of killers that are surely the Amazon's most frightening river monsters.
43:08I'm sitting here!
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