Study Finds Electric Eels Deliver Taser-like Shocks

Posted on December 4, 2014

A new study has found that electric eels can deliver taser-like shocks to prey. The eel, which inhabits the Amazon, can deliver a charge up to 600 volts, which is five times that of an electrical outlet in the U.S. This charge temporarily stuns prey giving the eel enough time to consume it before it can escape.

Vanderbilt University Stevenson Professor of Biological Sciences Kenneth Catania led the nine-month study of the electric eel. Catania equipped a large aquarium with technology that can detect the eel's electric signals. He also set up a high-speed video system to study the eel, which can swallow a small fish in just a tenth of a second.

Catania discovered that electric eels deliver three different kinds of electrical discharges. These include low-voltage pulses that the eels use to sense their environment and higher voltage charges used for hunting and defense. When hunting it was discovered that the eel uses a high-frequency volley of high-voltage pulses before it goes in for the kill. The high-voltage pulses are what temporarily stuns the prey giving the eel a short window to capture and eat the fish before it recovers and swims away.

Catania says in a statement, "It's amazing. The eel can totally inactivate its prey in just three milliseconds. The fish are completely paralyzed."

Catania's research also determined that the eel's high-voltage attack acts like a taser causing the muscles in the targeted fish to involuntarily contract. Catania explains the discovery in the following video. He says, "The eel is remotely activating the motor neuron output that activates muscles. They are essentially reaching into the animal's nervous system with their electric charge and remotely controlling their muscles through their peripheral nervous system, which I think is pretty amazing."

Take a look:

The research paper was published here in the journal, Science.

ANIMALS