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Adam Hart investigates a frenzied and voracious fish from South America \\u2013 the piranha! Said to be able to strip their prey to the bone in mere minutes, there are plenty of gruesome tales about the bubbling bloodbaths that occur when shoals of these hardy fish feed in the freshwaters across South America - from up in Venezuela in the Orinoco River, to the Amazon and down to the Paran\\xe1 River in Argentina. What role did former United States President Theodore Roosevelt have in creating the piranha\\u2019s fearsome reputation? And is this reputation misguided?

Adam hears what piranhas are really like, both in the wild and in captivity. He learns about how these fish hunt, the impact that humans are having on them and tries to establish if they really are as bloodthirsty as we\\u2019ve been led to believe.

Contributors:

Marcelo \\xc2ndrade is a professor at the Federal University of Maranh\\xe3o in Brazil. He researches the environments that piranha live in and their behaviour, as well as plastic ingestion by piranhas.

Hannah Thomas is the aquarium team manager at Chester Zoo in the UK where they care for 40 red-bellied piranhas.

Presenter: Professor Adam Hart \\nProducer: Jonathan Blackwell \\nEditor: Holly Squire \\nProduction Coordinator: Jonathan Harris \\nStudio Manager: Neva Missirian

(Photo: Red-Bellied Piranha, Credit: Ed Reschke via Getty Images)