{"id":82875,"date":"2025-08-24T10:17:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T15:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=82875"},"modified":"2025-08-24T11:52:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T16:52:32","slug":"cross-piranha-infested-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Skill of the Week: Cross a Piranha-Infested River"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-189027\" src=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SOTW-Cross-Piranha-River-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"Skill of the Week: Master the art of crossing a piranha-infested river. Cover any wounds, pick a clear spot, cross under the cloak of night, and move swiftly to ensure your survival on this daring adventure.\" width=\"750\" height=\"907\" srcset=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SOTW-Cross-Piranha-River-1-1.jpg 750w, https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SOTW-Cross-Piranha-River-1-1-320x387.jpg 320w, https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SOTW-Cross-Piranha-River-1-1-640x774.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world \u2014 having the breadth of skills, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/manly-lessons\/develop-savoir-faire-james-bond\/\">savoir-faire<\/a>, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we\u2019ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the good news: piranhas very rarely attack humans unless said humans are already injured or dead. Here\u2019s the bad news, according to Ray Owczarzak, assistant curator of fishes at the National Aquarium in Baltimore: it would only take about 5 minutes for a good-sized school of piranhas to devour an entire man.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, you won\u2019t encounter piranhas anywhere in the world except South America, where they live only in freshwater, typically in warm, slow-moving rivers and floodplains. If you have your choice of season, pick the wet season (October-March) when piranhas have plenty to eat and won\u2019t be feeling quite as bitey. And it goes without saying, if you see piranhas actively feeding in the water you\u2019re about to cross, choose a different spot unless you\u2019re the sort of person that enjoys sticking their hand into an active blender.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/storytellersworkshop.com\/\"><em>Illustration by Ted Slampyak<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world \u2014 having the breadth of skills, the&nbsp;savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we\u2019ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":189028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,277,42259,229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-outdoor-survival","category-skills","category-visual-guides"],"featured_image_urls":{"reactor-320":"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SOTW-Cross-Piranha-River-1-1-1-320x211.jpg"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Skill of the Week: Cross a Piranha-Infested River | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here\u2019s the good news: piranhas very rarely attack humans unless said humans are already injured\/dead. Here\u2019s the bad news: it would only take about 5 minutes for a good-sized school of piranhas to devour an entire man.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Skill of the Week: Cross a Piranha-Infested River | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s the good news: piranhas very rarely attack humans unless said humans are already injured\/dead. Here\u2019s the bad news: it would only take about 5 minutes for a good-sized school of piranhas to devour an entire man.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-24T15:17:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-24T16:52:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SOTW-Cross-Piranha-River-1-1-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"346\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"228\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Patrick Hutchison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Patrick Hutchison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Patrick Hutchison\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#\/schema\/person\/97459a48844ad384dc13b194ddd92272\"},\"headline\":\"Skill of the Week: Cross a Piranha-Infested River\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-24T15:17:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T16:52:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/\"},\"wordCount\":220,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SOTW-Cross-Piranha-River-1-1-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Outdoor\/Survival\",\"Skills\",\"Visual Guides\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2025\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/\",\"name\":\"Skill of the Week: Cross a Piranha-Infested River | The Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoor-survival\/cross-piranha-infested-river\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2018\/03\/SOTW-Cross-Piranha-River-1-1-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-24T15:17:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-24T16:52:32+00:00\",\"description\":\"Here\u2019s the good news: piranhas very rarely attack humans unless said humans are already injured\/dead. 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