According to a recent study, electric eels can control the movement of their prey with pulses of electricity.
According to a recent study, electric eels can remotely control the movement of their prey with pulses of electricity.
Researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee learned more about the hunting methods of eels.
After spotting a fish, an eel will send out an electric current to render it immobile. If there's no fish present, the current forces one out of its hiding place, where it can then be eaten. Eels are capable of sending up to 400 electric pulses out per second.
Although scientists have been studying electric eels for hundreds of years, Dr. Kenneth Catania, the biologist leading the study, and his team of researchers, recorded an eel attacking its prey using a high speed camera to make some new observations.
Catania said, "When the eel's pulses slow down...you see individual fish twitches, with one twitch from every pulse. That tells us that the eel is reaching in to the prey's nervous system, controlling its muscles."
The footage revealed that the eels are actually controlling their prey remotely.
Eels emitting electricity has always been considered an astonishing capability, and using it to control other animals makes them truly unique creatures.
