International- A piranha-like fish called a pacu was found in a neighborhood pond in Oklahoma on Saturday.
- The fish, which has human-like teeth, was caught by an 11-year-old boy fishing with his parents.
A piranha-like fish has been found in a neighborhood pond in Oklahoma, and the local wildlife department is furious.
"Dear, whoever released an entire Pacu (a South American fish closely related to Piranha) into a NEIGHBORHOOD POND; how dare you," the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation tweeted on Tuesday.
—Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (@OKWildlifeDept) July 18, 2023
"Your fish was caught by Charlie Clinton. He's 11," the department wrote, warning that the pacu is an "exotic, invasive species."
"These fish are generally harmless to humans, but the practice of dumping unwanted pets in waterways is so harmful to native wildlife. Don't be that pet owner. Don't let it loose," it added.
The specimen was found by Clinton at a catch-and-release pond in The Grove, a neighborhood in northeastern Oklahoma.
"Not every day your son catches an illegally invasive fish that was in our neighborhood pond," Janna Clinton, the boy's mother, wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
She added that her family noticed the fish looked like it had human teeth, and reported it to local authorities before returning it to the pond.
"We had no clue prior to posting it on our neighborhood page that it was invasive, otherwise I wouldn't have let him release it back (fail on my part)," Clinton added.
Pacus are typically found in the Amazon, tropical Asia, and parts of Western Europe.
While they're related to piranhas, they don't have the razor-sharp teeth of their cousins. Instead, pacus have square, straight teeth, and can grow to become much larger than piranhas.
A black pacu caught in Peru in 2013 was 45 inches long and weighed almost 82 pounds.
Pacus love to eat tree nuts that fall into the water, compelling a Danish professor to joke in 2013 that the fish like to bite testicles — a jest that people took seriously for a while. But these fish are typically afraid of humans and aren't known to attack swimmers, per National Geographic.
People reacting to the Oklahoma wildlife department's Tuesday tweet mostly noted the pacu's jaw and its uncanny resemblance to human teeth.
"WHY DOES IT HAVE HUMAN TEETH," one person wrote.
"IDK WE DIDN'T MAKE THEM," the department responded.