LITTLE ROCK — Otus note:
I’m off renewing my Head Cat vows. Here’s one of my classic columns. It ran Feb. 3, 1996, and caused quite the stir.
The recent reports of piranha in Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge have Arkansas Game and Fish officials concerned, but also urging the public not to panic. Unfortunately, that’s little comfort to the sportsmen and other outdoors enthusiasts who frequent the area.
“We aren’t completely certain that what we have here are piranha,” Brian Agnatha, Arkansas state ichthyologist, said last week. “In fact, the alleged attacks may well have been by alligator gar or any of several ganoid fishes of the genus Lepisosteus. At any rate, we’re certain the instances are isolated and will most likely not occur again.”
The attacks to which Agnatha referred took place Jan. 20 on Lake JackLee and were witnessed by several hunters from nearby Crossett.
“At first we just thought it was a buck that had its leg caught under the water,” Horace Dupree told the Warren Eagle Democrat last week. “But when we saw all that blood boiling up weknew it was something more. In a matter of minutes there was nothing left but a bag of bones and a 12-point trophy rack. My buddy Wallace took it home and mounted it in his den.”
Law enforcement officials in neighboring Louisiana have reported two similar instances in recent weeks. Morehouse Parish sheriff’s deputies say an anonymous tipster claimed he lost a 70-poundcoondoginbottomland along the Ouachita River only four miles below Felsenthal Lock & Dam.
“It all sounds like a combination of overactive imaginations and a little liquid fortitude,” Agnatha said. “Piranha prefer the much more temperate climate of equatorial waters like the Amazon or the Orinoco in Venezuela.”
When pressed, however, Agnatha would not rule out the possibility that piranhahad found their way to southern Arkansas.
“Sure, I guess anything’s possible,” Agnatha admitted, “but even if these attacks were by piranha, I doubt the fish would survive the entire winter in Lake Jack Lee. If they were [piranha], they were more than likely put in the lake by pranksters. Like the legend of alligators in the sewers, these rumors soon take on a life of their own.”
Others do not share Agnatha’s nonchalance and are taking prudent precautions.
“We’ll have signs posted at Moro Bay State Park,” said one official who asked to remain anonymous. “That’s where we’re really expecting our first trouble come spring.”
Moro Bay, in southwestern Bradley County, is about 12miles up the Ouachita River from where the hunters witnessed the deer incident. The official voiced concern that swimmers, lured into a false sense of security, could be attacked and overwhelmed without warning.
Assistant curator Wolfgang Schultze, an expert on the carnivorous fish’s behavior patterns, was contacted at the Aquarium of the Americasin New Orleans and offered these observations.
“Piranha often hunt alone,” Schultze stated, “but in times of drought, when food is scarce, the piranha become ravenous and congregate in packs. They will send out ascout fish to select a victim. The scout will take a small bite and the blood will attract the pack, which can range from 20 or 30 up to 1,800 fish. They have been known to strip a fully grown steer to nothing but bone in eightminutes.”
Schultze noted that there were 25 species of piranha, but only three have been known to attack man.
“If you’ve got the redbellied piranha up there - the Serrasalmus nattereri - then you’ve got quite the little monster on your hands,” Schultze said. “I wouldn’t worry too much if they were S. niger or S. piraya, but those nattereri get up to 18 inches long and have teeth like a mouth full of razor blades. You couldn’t pay me enough money to go swimming with those rascals around. I’ve got a nub on my left hand that taught me that lesson.”
Schultze said that if you are attacked, you should proceed as slowly and as quietly as possible to the bank and simply walk out.
“Thrashing and screaming just gets them all fussed up,” he said.
Until next time, Kalaka reminds you to always use the buddy system.
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Fayetteville-born Otus the Head Cat’s award-winning column of humorous fabrication appears every Saturday. E-mail:
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