Most Dangerous

River Monsters

Most Dangerous

River Monsters

Published at Petitcodiac Regional School

May 2016

Contents

Introduction: Deadly Monsters

#5 – Goliath Tigerfish

A Goliath of a predator out for prey.

#4 – Wels Catfish

World’s largest catfish that can swallow you

hole.

#3 – Goonch

An elusive predator that could never stop

growing.

#2 – Piranhas

A group of veracious predators or a solitary

hunter.

#1 – Bull Shark

The street fighter of rivers and lakes of Australia

and an aggressive predator.

I Thought…

What do you think?

Deadly Monsters

What's the

most

dangerous

River

Monster?

There's freshwater everywhere in lakes, rivers and

underground. And there's fish everywhere too, deadly

fish, scary fish and even ugly fish. When these come

together in one monstrous fish they become River

Monsters.

When these beasts have been accused of killing,

accidents or sightings, the pro (Jeremy Wade) goes out

in search of these beats and gets some answers about

the River Monster. This could give some live saving

advice or interesting facts about the Top 5 Deadly River

Monsters.

Length: Up to 6 Feet long Weight: Up to 100 pounds Lives: The Congo River

Ever heard of Goliath the giant, well this not

him but it is the Goliath of freshwater fish.

This East African beast is like a super predator

for its territory. It’s like a fish made from

almost every other river monster Jeremy

Wade has ever battle, like piranhas, arapaima

and alligator gar just to name a few. The

name of this elusive predator is the Goliath

Tigerfish.

5

#

Goliath Tigerfish

Immortalized in Congolese culture as mbenga-a.

Quick Fact

The Pro Says…

“This is the ultimate fresh

water predator”.

Deadly Weapons

Goliath Tigerfish has many dangerous

weapons such as its powerful jaws

that can crush bone and anything that

goes in them. Also its massive razor-

sharp, interlocking teeth with that is

hinged at the top and bottom which

allows it to open wide enough to bite

human sized prey.

Killer Instinct

Beside its killer weapons the Goliath

Tigerfish has a naturel urge to kill

things that seem in distress such as

thrashing around in the water. Also

things or animals that seems shiny, like

kids with shiny belts swimming in a

river!

The Catch

The Goliath Tigerfish that Jeremy

Wade caught was in it’s weaken state

and he waited for it to recover. But

sadly the mighty Goliath Tigerfish died

an hour later after the catch. The

village people thought that Jeremy

was fishing for food and after the fish

died they had a fest and celebrated

for the monster.

# 5 4 3 2 1

Length: Up to 10 Feet Long Weight: More Than 300 Pounds Lives: River Ebro, Spain

For centuries a huge catfish has been

wandering around the rivers of Europe.

In the 15 hundredths a human head was

found in one of these beast. This

aggressive and elusive attacker that can

be seen in rivers and lakes around Europe

and this creature is called the Wels

catfish.

4

Wels Catfish

The male protects about 300000 yellow egg and is ready to attack anything that comes to close.

Quick Fact

Deadly Weapons

The Wels Catfish is the monster of all

catfish. The Wels catfish has a huge

jaw with hundredths of needle sharp

teeth inside and with that big jaw he

can swallow prey hole. All those

needle sharp teeth will help grip the

prey. So the prey can never get away

after the Wels catfish laches on.

Killer Instinct

The Wels catfish has really meaty diet

by eating fish, birds and crustaceans.

But the Wels catfish will also eat

anything that will fit in its large mouth.

This fish is fearless and has many

reports back in the 16 and 15

hundredths of human body parts found

inside of the fish.

The Catch

When Jeremy wade caught a Wels

catfish it was 7 feet 4inches long and

weighed 163 pound mammoth. He

used extra strong equipment and he

determined that a 75 to 100 pound

catfish could easily pull a man into the

water. Jeremy wade said that this was

certainly the most impressive, hard

won catch.

# 5 4 3 2 1

Leught: Up to 6.5 feet long Weight: More than 160 pounds Lives: Himalayan Rivers, India

This illusive creature is known for attacking

humans and other lager animals. This cat fish

is one of the largest and most deadly catfish

in the world. The fish is thought to be eating

dead bodies from funerals on the rivers. And

a fish that can keep growing if the conditions

are right would make this the ultimate

predators and it’s the Goonch.

3

Goonch

The Goonch is related to the catfish family and is a fish that can keep growing if the conditions are right.

Quick Fact

The Pro Says…

“Just the absolute perfect predator. Huge, huge mouth! They just look so otherworldly.”

Deadly Weapons

The Goonch is a smart river monster

and has quite the set of weapons like

its mouth which is wide, flat and full

of sizable sharp teeth and the teeth

are backwards to grip their prey and

not let go. And the whiskers are to

help locate its next victim.

Killer Instinct

For a fish with as many deaths blamed

on it as this one it should have some

kind of killer instinct. The daily Goonch

diet consist of fish, prawns and aquatic

insects and maybe even humans or

human parts. People think that the

Goonch could be eating human

remains from the Hindu custom of a

pyre which could be feeding these

beasts. The Catch

Jeremy Wade caught his Goonch in

the morning. He caught it the morning

after he did his own fake funeral pyre

along the bank of the Kali River.

Which could have proved that the

Goonch is feeding off the human

remains of these funeral pyres.

# 5 4 3 2 1

A pyre is a fire made with a pile of wood, used for cremating dead bodies. And Prawns are a fresh water shrimp as seen here

Take Note

Length: Up to 1 foot long (Red-Bellied), Up to 2 feet long (Black) Weight: Up to 2 pounds (Red-Bellied), Up to 98 pounds (Black) Lives: Amazon River (Both)

These two fish are fast, powerful and deadly.

There is no way to pick one over the other.

They both have attacked many humans and

gave them severe wounds, these fish also

have really bad tempers and will attack

anything that they think is a threat or food.

One of these fish is a solitary hunter and is

powerful but the other one hunts in a pack of

mean and fast predators, and these fish are

the Red-Bellied Piranha and the Black Piranha.

2

Piranhas

Most of the nearly 60 species of piranhas are vegetarians.

Quick Fact

The Pro Says…

“I’ve spent years fishing this river and I know it is crammed full of the meanest nastiest creatures.”

Deadly Weapons

These two piranhas are together in

number two because their even but in

different ways. The Red-Bellied

Piranha is fast and feeds in huge

groups of a hundred or more and each

have a row of razor sharp teeth. The

Black Piranha is powerful, huge and is

solitary hunter with a row of larger

razor sharp teeth.

Killer Instinct

Most meat eating piranhas have a diet

of fish and other piranhas. These two

have many deaths blamed on them

because these are very fierce predators

and will eat almost anything. Piranhas

are attracted to thrashing or

disturbance in the water, so when

Jeremy Wade tested this with a dead

duck, he thrashed it around and within

seconds a school of Red-Bellied

Piranhas came up and ate it to the

bone. The Catch

When Jeremy Wade went to catch

these two types of piranhas, he was

quite successful at catching Red-

bellied piranhas because every time

he put the bait in the water he caught

one. He used a bamboo rod and a

lump of bloody meat on the end, but

when he caught a Black Piranhas it6

was really fierce and every time it

snapped its jaws it was chilling. The

Black Piranhas was safely returned to

the water. The hard part about

catching piranhas is returning them

back to the water without getting bit.

# 5 4 3 2 1

Length: Up to 12 feet long Weight: Up to 450 pounds Lives: Brisbane River Queensland, Australia

This is the number one most dangerous

River Monster in the world. So with a title

like that comes a really mean, aggressive top

of the line predator in all categories like in

deadly weapons, killer instinct and its super

skilled hunting strategies. There is one thing

that really separates this fish from the others

is its ability to go from slat to fresh water just

like that and the name of this River Monster

is the Bull Shark.

1

Bull Shark

The Bull Shark has a special organ that works like an on/off valve releasing or retaining salt as the shark needs.

Quick Fact

Deadly Weapons

The Bull Shark is a beast of a river

monster, which is speedy, powerful

and built like a street fighter. But the

real weapons are in its mouth with

multiple triangular, serrated teeth and

think gums to go with it! With a

mouth like that why not have a bite

power of 4 tons per square inch, and

the shark full of raging aggression to

help shake its prey to death.

Killer Instinct

With a River Monster with this much

raging aggression is a very successful

predator. Its eats almost any fish that's

in freshwater or saltwater, which it

switches from when the other is a little

low. The Bull Shark has many attacks

on humans because it often mistakes

humans for large fish and the Bull

Shark being pound per pound the top

of man eaters, it would not be good to

be targeted by this Monster.

The Catch

When Jeremy Wade was set on

getting a Bull Shark in freshwater he

teamed up with a team of

professional shark fishing specialist to

find and catch a Bull Shark. While

fishing he found out that Bull Sharks

are breeding in rivers and that's not

good for the fish population. When

Jeremy Wade caught a Bull Shark it

was 18 months old and 3 feet 6inch

long and weight 15 pounds.

# 5 4 3 2 1

Here are the criteria I used in ranking The Most Dangerous River Monsters. The River Monster:

Has large size or/and attitude

Has power

Interesting to reel in

Has deaths blamed

Was a struggle to catch it

Their habitat (thrived in a harsh habitat)

I thought…

1. Do you agree with my ranking? If you don’t, try ranking them yourself. Justify your ranking with data. You may use my criteria or you may use your own. 2. Here are three other River Monsters I considered but did not use: Sawfish, Giant Stingray and Alligator Gar. Find out more about them. Should they have made my list? Are there others that should be considered?

What do you think?