electrical eel use specialelectricity - emitting organsto stun their prey , and a scientist latterly discovered they expend these same mechanisms to locate their food in the nighttime . A study issue this week inNature Communications[PDF ] exemplify how these nocturnal tool use energy fields to “ electrolocate ” their prey as well as paralyze them with a charge of up to 600 V .
Ken Catania , a neurobiologist at Vanderbilt University , conduct a series of laboratory experiments in which he observed this shocking behaviour in action . He presented the eel with anesthetized fish , lug from the predators ' electroreceptors with charge plate bags . When Catania forced the fish to twitch with an electrode , the eel emitted its electrical attack . But after that , it was stumped . The eel lunged towards the bowel movement in the water but made no attempt to devour the fish .
Things got even more interesting once Catania introduced an electrically conductive carbon pole to the tank . After releasing its rush , the eel initially moved towards the direction of the Pisces the Fishes only to change its judgement and dart towards the rod rather , wherever it had been placed . When Catania moved the perch onto a rotate cycle and removed the fish from the tank entirely , the eel was further discombobulate , writhing to give suck up the rod that it perceived to be its quarry .
This demeanour suggests that electric eels are able to simultaneously employ their electrical charge as a predatory attack and a tracking system . Catania published a separatestudyinSciencelast year that show how an electric eel ’s stupor can stimulate its prey ’s motor neurons and cause involuntary brawn spasms . After a duo of electric volleys , the lost Pisces the Fishes will have revealed its location before the eel go in for the killing . The eel sucks up the prey within millisecond of the onset , which we now roll in the hay it does by using its high - potential difference charge to nail its accurate localization .
These recent findings place galvanising eel in the same league as bat , sharks , and other creatures who use a type of “ 6th gumption ” to site their fair game . Sharks and rays can sense the galvanising fields emitted by other creatures , while bats and some whales use echo sounder to detect excogitate sound . But eel are the only creatures whose settle sense doubles as a weapon , making them even more awesome ( or terrifying ) than we previously realized .
[ h / t : National Geographic ]
