Volta electric eels can gather in groups, working together for small fish in shallow water, a new study shows. After that, small groups of about 10 eels attack by converging with a high-voltage discharge.
Electric eels have long been considered solitary hunters, preferring to hunt and kill their prey alone by clinging to suspicious sleeping fish at night and shock them with shocks. But according to a recent paper published in the Journal of Ecology and Evolution, there are rare circumstances in which Iles uses a social hunting strategy instead. In particular, researchers have observed more than 100 electric eels in a small pond in the Brazilian Amazon basin that form cooperative hunting parties to catch small fish called tetras.
Co-author of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History c. “This is an extraordinary discovery,” said David de Santana. “This has never been documented in electric eels. Hunting in groups among mammals is very common, but it is really rare in fish. There are only nine species of fish for this, which makes this discovery really special.”
The electric eel is technically a knifefish. The eel produces its signature electric discharge – depending on the purpose of the discharge, both low and high voltage – eel is located symmetrically on both sides of the eel, through three pairs of abdominal organs made up of electrocytes. The brain sends signals to electrocytes, opens ion channels and briefly counteracts polarity. The difference in electric potential then produces a current similar to a battery with stacked plates.
Douglas Bastos
This is not the first time researchers have made surprising discoveries about electric eels. For example, the 19th century physicist Michael Faraday performed many experiments with the electric eel in 1838. He noticed that he only felt mild shocks because the water dissolved so quickly. Kenneth Catania, a biologist and neuroscientist at Wonderbilt University, is one of the leading scientists studying electric eels these days. He found that animals could vary the amount of voltage in their electrical discharge, using low voltage and high voltage for the purpose of hunting to hang and kill prey. It is also useful to detect high voltage potential prey, how to use buttons echolocation.
And in 2016, Katania presented evidence in support of Alexander von Humboldt’s 1800 account of how Venezuelans used wild horses to lure and trap electric eels (“horse fishing”). Stamping and snorting horses in shallow water favored by electric eels, the latter bounced off and stunned the horses with a range of high-voltage electric discharges as a defense mechanism. Once the eels are emptied, the natives will be able to easily catch them using a small harpoon on the rope.
For centuries, naturalists have dismissed Humboldt’s account because no one has noticed such behavior since – until Catania reacted to the net sight used in his lab to transfer Ellis from his cage to the chamber Catania for his experiments. She conducted experiments with LEDs (equipped with carrying tape to conceive a maternity) mounted on the head of a fake crocodile. Iles aggressively attacked the fake crocodile as described by Humboldt. Catania believes that the reaction begins in certain conditions, such as when the dry season tuna with the sudden arrival of the eel is filled with small water.
By 2019, scientists thought electric el was the only species in its particular genus. It was the year that De Santana effectively published three times the number of known species of electric eels. The subject of the current paper was: Volta’s electric eel (Electrophoresis).
“A person of this species can generate up to 860 volts of discharge, so in theory if 10 discharges are made at the same time they can generate up to 8,600 volts of electricity.” “This is around the same voltage that is needed to power 100 light bulbs.” He has felt the shock in the field several times and has noticed that while it lasts only a fraction of a second, the shock can still cause painful muscle strain.
D.A. Bestos et al., 2021
D. Santana and his co-authors first noticed the unusual behavior of group-hunting in a 2012 field expedition to explore the diversity of Erie River fish, while team member (and co-author) Douglas Bastos found a small pond filled with more than 100 electric eels. In the second expedition in 201, groups of the same size were found at the same location, and the team will eventually record Eile’s behavior by observing for several hours continuously.
Most of the time, the eels were hung just at the deep end of the lake, while sometimes surfing while breathing. But it was not to be. De Santana’s team noted how the Iles can work together with herd schools of tetras in densely populated areas in shallow water, forming the equivalent of a coral by swimming in a large circle. The eel then spit at about 10 eel’s small prey parties, around a ball of tetras and stunning small fish with a harmonious high-voltage discharge. The amazing Tetraz made it very easy to snatch.
“This is the only place where this behavior has been observed, but right now we think every year Il will see potential,” D Santana said. “Our initial hypothesis is that this is a relatively rare phenomenon that only occurs in places with adequate shelter for a large number of hunters and adults.” If the behavior had been normal, he argued, it would have come across in his interviews with locals.
D Saint and his team will continue their investigation of this unusual behavior; They hope for a direct measure of synchronized discharge on their next campaign. And they have started a civic scientific program called Project Porek to find additional packs of electric eels in the area. The team will also collect eight to 10 adults and bring them to a German lab to study them better under more controlled settings.
DOI: Ecology and Evolution, 2021. 10.1002 / ece3.7121 (About DOI).
L. Image list by Sosa
