Nothing to say

I’m watching the silliest program.  Animal Planet is showing an episode of “Most Extreme” that’s about blood suckers, with a halloween-y tie-in to vampires.  Spooooooooooky…

So the number 8 or 9 creature is the candirú.  The only time I’ve ever heard of this thing was in the Venture Brothers episode “Are You There, God?  It’s Me, Dean.”  In the episode, the Monarch is about to drop them into the Amazon.  He is describing their eminent torture by “the dreaded candirú.”  Doctor Venture immediately dismisses the outrageous claims as myth.  And the claims really are so outrageous that I figured of course he’s right.

It turns out he’s not.  The candirú is a tiny inch-long fish that’s found in the Amazon river, and it typically feeds off the blood from the gills of fish.  It’s attracted to nitrogen, apparently, which leads it to be highly attracted to urine.  As such, it occasionally chooses human orifices over gills.

Holy crap, as if the Amazon wasn’t already frightening enough.