A Catfish that eats WOOD? 吃木头的鲶鱼
We all know that termites（白蚁）eat wood. But a catfish（鲶鱼）? That’s right. Scientists recently captured the first live specimens of a wood-eating armored（披甲的）catfish in Peru, a species only known previously from dried skins from fish that the indigenous（本地的）people had shot and skinned. Having live specimens allows scientists to do genetic analyses and more fully study and document the species. And how - what a weird creature! Catching a fish that doesn’t eat so-called traditional fish food proved challenging. You can’t use hook and line, since they wouldn’t be attracted to a worm or spinner. “We use cast nest in areas with rapids（急流）with fast water where there are rocky outcrops (岩石）露头and log jams（原木浆）,” explains Petry. “That seems to be the preferred habitat（栖息地）of the wood eating catfish. Gillnets（以刺网捕鱼）are set along the river channels over night to capture any species that moves around.”
Turns out there are actually ten wood-eating catfish of the genus Panaque, which this new species is also a member of. All have spoon-shaped teeth that allow them to scrape wood off of rotting logs and wood in rivers and all live within the Amazon, though some are more widely distributed and others live only in extremely limited areas. The Amazon and its tributaries（支流）have an incredibly high biodiversity（生物多样性）of freshwater fishes. Over 4,700 species are known in South America, and scientists discover an average of 100 new species per year. As quickly as they're discovered, many are disappearing - recall last October's post, "The untold loss of river mega-fish, an untold story"?
Have you been to the Amazon rainforest? What do you think of these mega-fish? Have any animals with weird feeding habits surprised you?
