Electric eels, which despite their name are actually a type of knifefish, were believed to be solitary creatures. And yet before Bastos’ eyes were more than 100 of them. Then things got even more jolting.
As described this week in the online journal Ecology and Evolution, pack hunting might be a common occurrence with land mammals, but this is the first time electric eels have been captured in the wild demonstrating their fatal dose of collective electricity. The species of knifefish observed is notorious for generating the most intense electric shock of any known animal.
Video of Scientists spot electric eels zapping prey in packs It s really amazing to find a behavior like that with eels that are 2.4, 2.5 meters [around 8 feet] long, said co-author David de Santana, a zoologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. One individual eel of this species can produce a high-voltage discharge of 860 volts. So, in theory, 10 electric eels can produce 8,600. So that s a lot. It s a really strong discharge, however the duration s really short.
The hunting pack of eels behavior stunned the scientists. This is an extraordinary discovery, de Santana said. Nothing like this has ever been documented in electric eels.
Their discovery reshapes the thoughts that eels are solitary creatures. According to de Santana, only nine fish species hunt in groups, compared with many more mammals who use this technique for hunting.
The type of electric eel the team observed in the Iriri River in the Brazilian state of Pará is called Volta and is capable of producing 860-volt electric shocks.
De Santana broke down what those numbers mean when he explained [.] so in theory if 10 of them discharged at the same time, they could be producing up to
January 14, 2021 at 11:00 am
One Volta’s electric eel able to subdue small fish with an 860-volt jolt is scary enough. Now imagine over 100 eels swirling about, unleashing coordinated electric attacks.
Such a sight was assumed to be only the stuff of nightmares, at least for prey. Researchers have long thought that these eels, a type of knifefish, are solitary, nocturnal hunters that use their electric sense to find smaller fish as they sleep (
Electrophorus voltai) hunt together, corralling thousands of smaller fish together to concentrate, shock and devour the prey, researchers report January 14 in
Ecology and Evolution.
“This is hugely unexpected,” says Raimundo Nonato Mendes-Júnior, a biologist at the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation in Brasilia, Brazil who wasn’t involved in the study. “It goes to show how very, very little we know about how electric eels behave in the wild.”