The eel presses its chin – the positive pole – against the body of the attacker, and rises up as high as it can reach so the electricity travels down through the attacker’s body. The eel can make the shock more intense by leaping out of the water and making the electricity travel through the body of the attacker to reach the negative pole. When an eel is totally submerged the current is conducted by the water, closing the loop. Electricity flows from the positive to the negative pole. You can visualize an eel as a large battery, with a positive pole at the mouth end and a negative pole at the tail end. V Part II” Why would the eel leap out of the water to shock a large intruder such as a horse or human? “Fishing with horses” in the Amazon, engraving by Robert Schomburgk, from “The Naturalist’s Library, Vol. It clearly shows the eels rising up out of the water to electrocute the horses. Look carefully at the following illustration by Robert Schomburgk, based on Humboldt’s account. But research by Prof Catania has shown that Humboldt’s account matches his lab experiments with attacking eels. Over the next two hundred years, most people thought that the story was so unusual that Humboldt must have made it up. Only then did the local villagers enter the water to capture some eels. Two horses sank into the water and died before the eels ran out of electrical charge. The screaming, stamping horses were attacked by eels leaping out of the water to defend themselves. They drove a herd of thirty horses into a shallow pond filled with electric eels and commotion ensued. When he arrived at a village in the Amazon rainforest the locals told him they could catch eels by “fishing with horses.” In 1800, the explorer Alexander von Humboldt was intrigued by the electric eel. Given that they depend on the fish available in such a pond for food, eels will want to dissuade any large animal, particularly another predator, from getting established in their territory. They have adapted to these conditions by breathing air. These creatures have adapted to living in areas where the water table fluctuates seasonally, and the eels can often find themselves stuck in relatively small ponds, mudholes, and oxbows as the water recedes. Why would this fish attack an animal larger than itself? Researchers postulate that the electric eel is protecting its territory and food source. Watch what happens when this caiman, a South American crocodilian species, messes with the wrong electric eel! That’s one dead croc! Why Do Electric Eels Attack Large Animals? In each case I’ve studied, the eel shocks the caiman to the point that it either gives up or dies. There are numerous accounts of fishermen catching electric eels and having a caiman attack the eel for food. He has even experimented by using his own arm – see the video below:Įlectric eels will attack large animals. Credit Kenneth Catania, Vanderbilt University Here’s a series of photos from Prof Catania’s lab demonstrating an electric eel attacking a fake caiman head. Although the amperage is low, a sustained burst could incapacitate a person to the point of drowning. At the same time, they generate an intense burst of high-voltage electricity. When attacking, electric eels rise out of the water and press their lower jaws against an arm, leg or even as high as the chest. Will an Electric Eel Attack a Human? Yes, electric eels have been known to attack humans. A full-grown electric eel can generate up to 600 to 860 volts of electricity in short, intense bursts, making it the strongest living bioelectricity generator. Just like Tasers, the electric eel’s electrical pulses cause muscular ‘lockup’ by activating the target’s nervous system. Prof Catania describes the shocking action of the electric eel as a biological ‘taser,’ causing temporary neuromuscular incapacitation. Rather, the high-voltage pulses act like a remote control that hijacks the animal’s nervous system to the point that it can’t control its own muscles and they go into spasm. Professor Kenneth Catania, Vanderbilt University, has discovered that the eel’s high voltage discharge doesn’t activate the prey animal’s muscles directly. Humans have been attacked and killed by electric eels, but strictly in defense and not for food. This immobilizes the animal so the electric eel can swallow its prey whole. These high-voltage pulses are so strong that they remotely activate the neurons inside the prey, making their muscles spasm. Electric eels can produce 600-volt electric pulses up to 400 times per second.
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