River Monsters

Magna Home Entertainment

R4 DVD

River Monsters is a television series released by Animal Planet and hosted by Jeremy Wade, biologist and extreme Angler. It has proved to be one of the most successful series on Animal Planet and a third series is in production. While, at first, glance the presentation seems sensationalist, when you get behind the heavily marketed presentation the content is truly astounding. It brings together a range of different genres into each episode forensics, historical study, biology, medicine and, of course, fishing. There are eight episodes in each series, 45 minutes each in length.

Episodes in the first series included Piranha, Catfish, Alligator Gar, European Maneater, Amazon Assassins, Amazon Flesheaters and Freshwater Shark (the final episode having a lot of Australian content).

To give an example of the content let’s look at Amazon Flesheaters, the story opens with a tale about a catfish found with a man lodged in its mouth. Wade investigates the story and finds out about the unique nature of Amazonian Catfish which literally includes a myriad of forms. He looks at the Piraíba catfish which while not having teeth is able to swallow any number of animals whole even leading to its own demise if it chooses a victim too large. He even finds one with another Catfish of the same size lodged in its mouth !

He then begins to examine other Catfish which are even more terrifying. The Candiru is a small Catfish which is a parasite, it smells the urea of fish and enters them living off their blood. In some cases it can mistake a human for a fish smelling the urea of someone urinating and swimming up their penis. Wade examines this tale to see if it is urban legend, he finds a case which cannot be disputed interviewing the victim, the urologist and even finding the Candiru kept as a specimen in a local museum. He provides full medical information including X-Rays and more to document the case. Creepy stuff ! He then examines the Candiru-Acù which is a larger and perhaps even more deadly version of the Candiru. It has a sharp toothed mouth and bodies are regularly found without internal organs as these fish quickly eat into the flesh and then devour the body inside out leaving bullet link holes on the skin from which they have entered. He shows how this fish eats by placing large fish into the water and then dragging them out finding them without any internal organs or flesh left within a very short time. He also visits a local morgue and sees exactly what these fish can do to living humans who have fallen into the water, or been sick or drunk and unable to escape the fish in time. Wade then returns to the original big catfish he was after and catches one showing us just how big they can grow.

I find Wade an impressive host, while certainly a character; he shows immense respect for the animals he discusses, letting them go after he has caught them. He offers us lots of background information on each fish and combines academic knowledge with hands on experience in the field. This is a riveting series which will keep you fascinating every episode, it will also introduce you to some of the truly strangest fish on the planet !

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