Did You Know Piranhas Bark? Here’s Your Chance to Hear It
- Posted on October 13, 2011 at 12:40pm by
Liz Klimas
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Scientists find piranhas different barks have different meanings. (Photo: Sandie Millot)
Piranhas are like the rotweilers of the sea — they bark and they bite. Scientists recently recorded piranhas barking and conclude these sounds mean back off — now.
The fact that piranhas bark isn’t new news to the scientific world but you usually have to pick them up to hear it — and who’s going to do that? Scientists at University of Liège, Belgium, were interested in recording why piranhas bark without outside stimuli. What they found is that it’s a communication tool with each other, mostly meaning go away.
According to the release, scientists suspended a hydrophone and video camera into the piranhas’ tank. They then compared the soundtrack with the movie they filmed finding that the fish were generally silent — except in the face of confrontation.
Watch and hear piranhas bark in a tank:
“At first we thought there was only one sound,” Parmentier said in the release, but then it became apparent that the piranhas produce two more: a short percussive drum-like sound when fighting for food and circling an opponent; and a softer ‘croaking’ sound produced by their jaws when they snap at each other.
National Geographic reports more on deciphering piranha barks:
Parmentier and study co-author Sandie Millot of the University of Algarve in Portugal, though, used their tech-heavy technique to link three distinct sounds to three aggressive piranha behaviors.
A repetitive grunt was tied to a visual face-off, as if to say, “get away from me.”
A second call resembling a low thud was associated with circling and fighting with other fish. Both of these calls, the researchers discovered, were made using a fast-twitching muscle that runs along a piranhas’ swim bladder—an air-filled organ that helps fish maintain their buoyancy.
If fellow piranhas didn’t heed these warning calls, the aggressor would begin chasing the neighboring fish and making a third type of sound by faintly gnashing teeth.
Interested in how these creatures make sound underwater? Scientists had previously known that the bark was associated with muscles attached to the fish’s swim bladder. What they found was that it wasn’t acoustic properties of the swim bladder resonating sound though, but the frequency with which the muscles attached to it vibrated.
It may be important to note, just for piranha’s reputation, that only two or three of the 25 piranha species that exist in the wild pose a threat to humans, according to Parmentier.
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Comments (46)
angry nerd
Posted on October 14, 2011 at 12:49amnow drop in pelosi
Report Post »lucktsm
Posted on October 14, 2011 at 1:10am@ AngryNerd – Funny! Let’s drop Dingy Harry in with her.
Report Post »the point
Posted on October 14, 2011 at 9:56amThey don’t eat sh– .
Report Post »bankerpapaw
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 10:31pmSounds exactly like a bunch of Democrats just before a State of the Union speech.
Report Post »bankerpapaw
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 10:29pmSounds just like a bunch of Democrats before a State of the Union speech.
Report Post »cyclops
Posted on October 15, 2011 at 6:36amLMAO………………Good one……
Report Post »3monkeysmomma
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 7:50pmThey bark…
They bite…
If they poop in my front yard too, they will be indistinguishable from my neighbor’s dog!
Report Post »Armed Patriot
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 8:19pmJust like the cats in mine. But, you can screw my wife, call me names, throw rocks at my kid, tag my suv, but you mess with my dog, my best friend, and I will string your innards from light pole to light pole. Just saying friend. You have neighbor issues, dont want to be another. Just wish them well and throw it back into their yard, thats what I did for a year and a half. Then the cat got ate by a dog… fitting justice.
Report Post »terriergal
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 6:30pm“They always grow louder when they’re about to feed on human flesh!”
Report Post »Armed Patriot
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 8:20pmHow are they on mexican food… or islamic??? Little heartburn with the spices but soooooooo worth it???
Report Post »4xeverything
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 6:05pmSounds like my husband after a big meal.
Report Post »Armed Patriot
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 8:14pmNo thats a fart… Im assuming…
Report Post »delorisdo
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 4:27pmDid you know a CROAKER croaks & it is a loud sound, some people call them hard head for a knot on their fore head & this did not cost a thin dime to find out !!!
Report Post »Dianne93101
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 4:08pmnext project: figure out the message coming from the Occupy people’s grunts and teeth-gnashing ; )
Report Post »338lapua
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 6:53pmDiaper change?
Report Post »Demands for food…….
More free stuff!
NOW!!!!!!!
Armed Patriot
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 8:23pmWhat will these people really do when the US Dept of Free closes its doors due to lack of funding. God, guns, beans, and bullets people. Dont forget water.
Report Post »TT1488
Posted on October 14, 2011 at 12:37amOh that’s the noice before their ipad 5 begins dying out or their $2000 laptop battery about to die crap the bed.
Report Post »1956
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 3:58pmThis will come in real handy next time I go swimming in a river in South America.
Report Post »Black Manta
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 4:05pmYou have to be flipping kidding me….And this is important how? Blaze starting to be RIDICULOUS with nonsence…..DISPICABLE….
Report Post »Tayzar
Posted on October 14, 2011 at 1:32amBlack Manta, I believe they put articles like this in here to keep from the monotonous Political and other news just to make you go “Oh thats kinda cool, never knew that”. So it‘s not that they are going purely entertainment it’s more of they are putting something different so you can at least enjoy it.
Report Post »LovinUSA
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 3:56pmYeah, we have a bunch of them in the White House.
Report Post »Arshloch
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 3:20pmMore liberal input. ARF
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 3:03pmDoooOOoooo YoooOooOOoooooou Speeeak WhaaaAAaaAAaaLE?
Report Post »fatjack
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 2:59pmSo far I see barry, joe, harry and dear old nancy. I wonder how much tax dollars was spend.
Report Post »countryfirst
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 2:03pmI feel the OWS crowd hasn’t evolved to far from these fish, one is doing all the communicating and the others are just repeating it.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 3:01pmI feel the OWS crowd hasn’t evolved to far from these fish, one is doing all the communicating and the others are just repeating it.
Report Post »4everfree2b
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:55pmcheck it out, more intelligent than a muslim! lol
Report Post »4everfree2b
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:54pmcheck it out, more intelligent than a muslim lol !!!!!!!!!!!!
Report Post »Annie Fields
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:53pmSnorkeling off Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles I was VERY surprised that you can actually HEAR fish of ALL kinds MUNCHING on coral! It’s sooooo cool! Also, when I was lucky enough to be swimming with dolphins off Lanai (Hawaii) you can hear them “talking” even before you see them and then before you know it, you’re swimming with the pod! Also, very, very, very cool!
(My apologies if my comments carelessly betray my insane luck in life that I was able to travel to these wonderful places… Both were the result of some very lucrative contracts I had – which are now over! So please don’t hate me!)
http://www.anniefields.com
Report Post »llotus
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 2:00pmAnnie Fields…….I used to grab a calf by the tail and let it swim to the other side……pretty exciting……not too smart……but exciteing. Lotus.
Report Post »UlyssesP
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 4:06pmIsn’t it sad you have to include the disclaimer?
Report Post »Don’t let anyone mess with what seem to be good memories.
Cat
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 6:46pmAlligators bark too … a rather needless warning to, back off.
Report Post »Didn’t take any federal money to learn that …
dave88
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:37pmDoes Berlitz have a course on speaking piranha?
Report Post »Steve.O
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:42pmNo but Dory from finding nemo might.. she can speak whale lol
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:36pmnow we know what the democrats are descended from
Report Post »CatB
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:47pmROFL … sounds just like them …
Report Post »pamela kay
Posted on October 14, 2011 at 4:57amI was going to say that they have been barking in DC since Obama took office. I like your comment much better!
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:24pm.
Report Post »They taste pretty good too…………
ubtaught
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:21pmArticles like this can be easily turned into curricula. Just comparing the original article (available in university libraries) to the ‘media’ version offers all kinds of learning opportunities (accuracy, research, fact v opinion, subjective v objective, fact checking, etc). Plus one could use it as a beginning to writing a report on Piranha, possibly doing an experiment similar to this one (making your own hydrophone and seeing if other aggressive or nonaggressive fish make noises like this).
Higher order thinking skills…engaged…
Thoughts?
Report Post »pjfrench
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 4:56pmI can’t help but wonder how much it cost to let these little guys get their fifteen “minutes” of fame. AND why do we as humans find the need to apply OUR words to the sounds that other species make. Maybe they were saying – I want out of this box! NO privacy whatsoever! Can’t believe that in this clean environment I still get stressed out and nash my teeth in frustration. LOL Really, you have to wonder what people do with their time and get paid by tax payers to do it. Wow!
Report Post »teapartyconservatism
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:19pmWow, they really do bark. That’s one sound you never want to hear in person.
Here’s the new and improved blog providing the facts repressed by politicians and the media, on how to be certain if Obama really is ineligible and what Congress knows about it! http://teapartyconservatism.blogspot.com
Report Post »gmoneytx
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 12:58pmThe first sound sounded like they farted.
Report Post »cranberry
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 12:55pmI also grunt when someone’s in my personal space – back off a bit!
Report Post »Voteman
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 1:05pmLol….
Report Post »ryan
Posted on October 13, 2011 at 12:50pmGotta admit, the teeth knashing is pretty funny.
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