Leggende sulla ferocia dei piranha

Il piranha è stato oggetto di un' interesse quasi morboso fin dai tempi dei primi grandi esploratori avventuratisi in Amazzonia 400 anni fa e poi tornati in patria con un bagagli di atroci storie sul pesce assassino. Lo descrissero come l'incarnazione del demonio, divoratore di uomini e animali. L'immagine del piranha riportata da questi esploratori è quella di un flagello di dimensioni bibliche che ancora oggi continua a tormentare come un incubo il nostro immaginario collettivo.

Il piranha che noi conosciamo è quello descritto dai grandi esploratori che si avventurarono in Amazzonia in cerca di avventura e di fama immortale. Uomini come Roosevelt, 26esimo presidente degli  Stati Uniti d’America, contribuirono ad aumentare questa terribile fama di “pesce assassino”.Roosevelt descrisse il piranha come un orrida piaga locale, temuto da chiunque osasse invadere il suo dominio.

La descrizione di T.Roosevelt:

Esistono delle leggende sui piranha le quali raccontano la loro fama di uccisori e mangiatori di uomini; queste leggende risalgono ai tempi della visita del presidente americano T.R. in Brasile e le dicerie messe in giro dai pescatori locali.

Per garantire un vero spettacolo della natura all’avventuriero Roosevelt i pescatori brasiliani gli mostrarono tributi di Amazzonia ricchi di piranha e lo stesso autore poté assistere a dimostrazioni di ferocia quando i pesci selvatici ridussero in brevissimo tempo una carcassa mangiandola fino alle ossa ed associando questa immagine ai piranha, tutto questo viene descritto nel suo racconto intitolato “Viaggio attraverso il Brasile selvaggio”.

Cosi come viene riportato nel testo:

“Questi sono i pesci più feroci del mondo. Anche i più formidabili predatori, come gli squali e i barracuda, che spesso attaccano prede più piccole di loro, non competono con i piranha, che invece sono soliti attaccare prede molto più grandi di loro. sono in grado di amputare un dito ad una mano che incautamente sfiori l’acqua, mutilano i nuotatori, in ogni fiume che attraversa i villaggi del Paraguay, non mancano casi di uomini che sono stati mutilati dai loro morsi. Il sangue nell’acqua li eccita fino alla follia e mordono fino a ridurre in piccoli pezzi iniziando dalla coda dei grandi pesci e stancandoli nel nuoto fino a che si arrendono ai loro attacchi.

Il piranha è un pesce piccolo dal corpo compresso con una faccia incavata e con grosse mascelle robuste, i denti affilatissimi ricordano le cuspidi di uno squalo ed i muscoli mascellari sono molto potenti, il morso rapido e furioso fa si che i loro denti possano mordere carne ed ossa, la testa è corta e con occhi maligni ed il tutto lo rende simile ad un diavolo feroce. Le loro azioni non sono da meno, non mi sono mai sentito così impotente davanti ad una simile furia della natura, quando vengono pescati fuori dall’acqua emettono suoni straordinariamente acuti e continuano comunque a mordere tutto intorno. Io stesso vidi un pesce pescato che morse un pezzo di legno ed i suoi denti lo incisero in profondità. Sono un vero flagello dell’acqua e dei suoi abitanti ed è necessario avere la massima attenzione quando si nuota o quando si guada un fiume sincerandosi della loro presenza. Solitamente non sono, se non molestati, aggressivi di indole ma basta una piccola ferita per incattivirli e scatenare la loro furia immediata, non concedendo scampo dall’acqua”.

La leggenda quindi nacque intorno al 1913, quando Roosevelt intraprese la spedizione nell’interland brasiliano. I brasiliani erano contenti della visita del famoso presidente e, conoscendo bene il suo amore per l’avventura, programmarono per lui un itinerario di tutto rispetto: visita della foresta pluviale e perfino la scoperta di un fiume in loco, che venne battezzato in suo onore “Rio Theodore Roosevelt” (in realtà questo fiume non è altro che un’affluente del più famoso Rio Aripuana).

H.R. Axelrod, nel suo testo Oddballs Of The World, cita che il presidente venne accompagnato da un centinaio di giornalisti, la maggior parte dei quali non avevano mai visto la giungla in vita loro. Quando gli indigeni locali accompagnarono Roosevelt alla “scoperta” di quel fiume i brasiliani già sapevano tutto: avevano isolato un centinaio di yard di quel fiume con delle reti e per settimane i pesatori avevano gettato in quelle acque i piranha, quindi si può dire, senza ombra di dubbio, che i brasiliani istigarono i visitatori a quel mito. I brasiliani dissero a Roosevelt e al suo gruppo di non avventurarsi in quelle acque perché sarebbero stati immediatamente attaccati e mangiati dai  piranha, Roosevelt era scettico e non credeva che un pesce potesse essere cosi pericoloso e cadde così nella trappola: i brasiliani gettarono nel fiume una vecchia mucca ed immediatamente l’acqua si tinse di rosso, l’intera scena venne girata dal famoso ittiologo brasiliano Miranda-Riberiro.

Ecco alcuni passaggi tratti da libro pubblicato nel 1914.

Pag 42

What Sir Harry Johnston calls the really material devil, the devil of evil wild nature in the tropics, has been waged with marked success only during the last two decades. The men, in the United States, in England, France, Germany, Italy—the men like Doctor Cruz in Rio Janeiro and Doctor Vital Brazil in Sao Paulo—who work experimentally within and without the laboratory in their warfare against the disease and death bearing insects and microbes, are the true leaders in the fight to make the tropics the home of civilized man.

Late on the evening of the second day of our trip, just before midnight, we reached Concepcion. On this day, when we stopped for wood or to get provisions—at picturesque places, where the women from rough mud and thatched cabins were washing clothes in the river, or where ragged horsemen stood gazing at us from the bank, or where dark, well-dressed ranchmen stood in front of red-roofed houses—we caught many fish. They belonged to one of the most formidable genera of fish in the world, the piranha or cannibal fish, the fish that eats men when it can get the chance. Farther north there are species of small piranha that go in schools. At this point on the Paraguay the piranha do not seem to go in regular schools, but they swarm in all the waters and attain a length of eighteen inches or over. They are the most ferocious fish in the world. Even the most formidable fish, the sharks or the barracudas, usually attack things smaller than themselves. But the piranhas habitually attack things much larger than themselves. They will snap a finger off a hand incautiously trailed in the water; they mutilate swimmers

Pag. 43

In every river town in Paraguay there are men who have been thus mutilated; they will rend and devour alive any wounded man or beast; for blood in the water excites them to madness. They will tear wounded wild fowl to pieces; and bite off the tails of big fish as they grow exhausted when fighting after being hooked. Miller, before I reached Asuncion, had been badly bitten by one. Those that we caught sometimes bit through the hooks, or the double strands of copper wire that served as leaders, and got away. Those that we hauled on deck lived for many minutes. Most predatory fish are long and slim, like the alligator-gar and pickerel. But the piranha is a short, deep-bodied fish, with a blunt face and a heavily undershot or projecting lower jaw which gapes widely. The razor-edged teeth are wedge-shaped like a shark’s, and the jaw muscles possess great power. The rabid, furious snaps drive the teeth through flesh and bone. The head with its short muzzle, staring malignant eyes, and gaping, cruelly armed jaws, is the embodiment of evil ferocity; and the actions of the fish exactly match its looks. I never witnessed an exhibition of such impotent, savage fury as was shown by the piranhas as they flapped on deck. When fresh from the water and thrown on the boards they uttered an extraordinary squealing sound. As they flapped about they bit with vicious eagerness at whatever presented itself. One of them flapped into a cloth and seized it with a bulldog grip. Another grasped one of its fellows; another snapped at a piece of wood, and left the teeth-marks deep therein. They are the pests of the waters, and it is necessary to be exceedingly cautious about either....

Pag. 44

Swimming or wading where they are found. If cattle are driven into, or of their own accord enter, the water, they are commonly not molested; but if by chance some unusually big or ferocious specimen of these fearsome fishes does bite an animal—taking off part of an ear, or perhaps of a teat from the udder of a cow—the blood brings up every member of the ravenous throng which is anywhere near, and unless the attacked animal can immediately make its escape from the water it is devoured alive. Here on the Paraguay the natives hold them in much respect, whereas the caymans are not feared at all. The only redeeming feature about them is that they are themselves fairly good to eat, although with too many bones.

Pag. 52

Region he has explored have begun to tread the road of civilization. They have taken the first steps toward becoming Christians. It may seem strange that among the first-fruits of the efforts of a Positivist should be the conversion of those he seeks to benefit to Christianity. But in South America Christianity is at least as much a status as a theology. It represents the indispensable first step upward from savagery. In the wilder and poorer districts men are divided into the two great classes of “Christians” and “Indians.” When an Indian becomes a Christian he is accepted into and becomes wholly absorbed or partly assimilated by the crude and simple neighboring civilization, and then he moves up or down like any one else among his fellows.

Among Colonel Rondon’s companions were Captain Amilcar de Magalhães, Lieutenant João Lyra, Lieutenant Joaquin de Mello Filho, and Doctor Euzebio de Oliveira, a geologist.

The steamers halted; Colonel Rondon and several of his officers, spick and span in their white uniforms, came aboard; and in the afternoon I visited him on his steamer to talk over our plans. When these had been fully discussed and agreed on we took tea. I happened to mention that one of our naturalists, Miller, had been bitten by a piranha, and the man-eating fish at once became the subject of conversation. Curiously enough, one of the Brazilian taxidermists had also just been severely bitten by a piranha. My new companions had story after story to tell of them. Only three weeks previously a twelve-year-old boy who had gone in swimming near Corumb&á was attacked, and literally devoured alive by them.

Pag. 53

Rondon during his exploring trips had met with more than one unpleasant experience in connection with them. He had lost one of his toes by the bite of a piranha. He was about to bathe and had chosen a shallow pool at the edge of the river, which he carefully inspected until he was satisfied that none of the maneating fish were in it; yet as soon as he put his foot into the water one of them attacked him and bit off a toe. On another occasion while wading across a narrow stream one of his party was attacked; the fish bit him on the thighs and buttocks, and when he put down his hands tore them also; he was near the bank and by a rush reached it and swung himself out of the water by means of an overhanging limb of a tree; but he was terribly injured, and it took him six months before his wounds healed and he recovered. An extraordinary incident occurred on another trip. The party were without food and very hungry. On reaching a stream they dynamited it, and waded in to seize the stunned fish as they floated on the surface. One man, Lieutenant Pyrineus, having his hands full, tried to hold one fish by putting its head into his mouth; it was a piranha and seemingly stunned, but in a moment it recovered and bit a big section out of his tongue. Such a hemorrhage followed that his life was saved with the utmost difficulty. On another occasion a member of the party was off by himself on a mule. The mule came into camp alone. Following his track back they came to a ford, where in the water they found the skeleton of the dead man, his clothes uninjured but every particle of flesh stripped from his bones.

Pag. 54

Fishes had then eaten his body, or whether they had killed him it was impossible to say. They had not hurt the clothes, getting in under them, which made it seem likely that there had been no struggle. These man-eating fish are a veritable scourge in the waters they frequent. But it must not be understood by this that the piranhas—or, for the matter of that, the New-World caymans and crocodiles—ever become such dreaded foes of man as for instance the man-eating crocodiles of Africa. Accidents occur, and there are certain places where swimming and bathing are dangerous; but in most places the people swim freely, although they are usually careful to find spots they believe safe or else to keep together and make a splashing in the water. During his trips Colonel Rondon had met with various experiences with wild creatures. The Paraguayan caymans are not ordinarily dangerous to man; but they do sometimes become man-eaters and should be destroyed whenever the opportunity offers. The huge caymans and crocodiles of the Amazon are far more dangerous, and the colonel knew of repeated instances where men, women and children had become their victims. Once while dynamiting a stream for fish for his starving party he partially stunned a giant anaconda, which he killed as it crept slowly off. He said that it was of a size that no other anaconda he had ever seen even approached, and that in his opinion such a brute if hungry would readily attack a full-grown man. Twice smaller anacondas had attacked his dogs; one was carried under water—for the anaconda is a water-loving serpent—but he rescued it.

Pag. 55

Venomous snake, but was not discovered and brought back to camp until it was too late to save his life. The puma Colonel Rondon had found to be as cowardly as I have always found it, but the jaguar was a formidable beast, which occasionally turned man-eater, and often charged savagely when brought to bay. He had known a hunter to be killed by a jaguar he was following in thick grass cover. All such enemies, however, he regarded as utterly trivial compared to the real dangers of the wilderness—the torment and menace of attacks by the swarming insects, by mosquitoes and the even more intolerable tiny gnats, by the ticks, and by the vicious poisonous ants which occasionally cause villages and even whole districts to be deserted by human beings. These insects, and the fevers they cause, and dysentery and starvation and wearing hardship and accidents in rapids are what the pioneer explorers have to fear. The conversation was to me most interesting. The colonel spoke French about to the extent I did; but of course he and the others preferred Portuguese; and then Kermit was the interpreter. In the evening, soon after moonrise, we stopped for wood at the little Brazilian town of Porto Martinho. There are about twelve hundred inhabitants. Some of the buildings were of stone; a large private house with a castellated tower was of stone; there were shops, and a post-office, stores, a restaurant and billiard-hall, and warehouses for matté, of which much is grown in the region roundabout. Most of the houses were low, with overhanging, sloping caves.

Alcune mappe del viaggio di Roosevelt trattate nel suo libro.

AUTHOR: Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858–1919.

TITLE: Through the Brazilian Wilderness

PUBLISHED: New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1914.

PHYSICAL DETAILS: x, 410 p.

CITATION: Roosevelt, Theodore. Through the Brazilian Wilderness. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1914; Bartleby.com, 2000. www.bartleby.com/174/. [Date of Printout].

ON-LINE ED.: Published August 2000 by Bartleby.com; © Copyright Bartleby.com, Inc. (Terms of Use).

I racconti di Roosevelt tracciarono un' immagine indelebile del pesce assassino, un'immagine che ci influenza ancora ai nostri giorni, ma questa immagine risponde a realtà? Il piranha davvero può essere considerato l'incarnazione del demonio? O nei racconti di Roosevelt prevalgono suggestioni di creature mitiche…

La reputazione di predatore assetato di sangue che il piranha si è creato nel corso del tempo è in parte il risultato di forti  pregiudizi emotivi che noi esseri umani abbiamo nei confronti di animali che divorano i propri simili. Il piranha è uno strumento al servizio dell'igiene del fiume e della vita che è in esso, ci spaventa perché ci sentiamo minacciati da un male innato quando in realtà dovremo ammirarlo per la semplice efficacia con cui opera nel suo ecosistema.