An 11-year-old boy told his mom he caught a piranha in an Oklahoma pond. She thought he was being dramatic — and then she saw its teeth.
Charlie Clinton, 11, caught a fish with human-like teeth in a pond behind his Oklahoma home.
It turned out to be a pacu, a cousin of the piranha native to South America.
Wildlife authorities said it was likely someone's exotic pet that got too big for its tank.
Janna Clinton's 11-year-old son, Charlie, was fishing in a pond behind their Oklahoma home earlier in July when he pulled an unusual-looking fish out of the water. He yelled for his mother to come look, saying that he had caught a piranha.
At first, Clinton thought her son was being dramatic, she told Insider. Then she saw the creature's jarringly human-like teeth.
"I was shocked how big it was, and of course that it did actually have teeth," she said. "We took pictures. He kept giggling with excitement."
Charlie released the fish back into the pond, and Clinton posted the photos on a neighborhood Facebook page. Local wildlife authorities later identified the catch as a pacu, a fish native to South America and a cousin of the piranha. The species can grow up to 3.5 feet long and weigh up to 88 pounds.
In a Facebook post, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation said that the pacu was likely someone's exotic pet that they released when it outgrew its tank, and encouraged residents to report pacu sightings to their local game warden.
"Pacu are not native to Oklahoma and have the potential to become an invasive species," a representative for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation told Insider. "When non-native fish or wildlife are introduced into a habitat, they create competition with native species."
Clinton says that while they didn't know what to do with the fish the first time around, Charlie is determined to reel the pacu in once more.
"He wants it mounted and smiling at him," she said.
Read the original article on Insider
