“Historically, electric eels have been viewed as unsophisticated, primitive creatures that have a single play in their playbook: shocking their prey to death,” says Kenneth Catania, professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University. “But it turns out that they can manipulate their electric fields in an intricate fashion that gives them a number of remarkable abilities.”
The eel’s electrical system essentially provides it with a wireless Taser that it uses to stun its prey. In a study published last year, researchers showed that eels produce three different kinds of electrical discharges: low-voltage pulses for sensing their environment; short sequences of two or three millisecond, high-voltage pulses given off while hunting; and volleys of high-voltage, high-frequency pulses when the eel is capturing prey or defending itself.
In a series of experiments he showed that the electrical pulses the eel produces do not act on the muscles themselves but on the nerves that control the prey’s muscles. This produces strong, involuntary muscle contractions.
“Historically, electric eels have been viewed as unsophisticated, primitive creatures that have a single play in their playbook: shocking their prey to death,” says Kenneth Catania, professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University. “But it turns out that they can manipulate their electric fields in an intricate fashion that gives them a number of remarkable abilities.”The eel’s electrical system essentially provides it with a wireless Taser that it uses to stun its prey. In a study published last year, researchers showed that eels produce three different kinds of electrical discharges: low-voltage pulses for sensing their environment; short sequences of two or three millisecond, high-voltage pulses given off while hunting; and volleys of high-voltage, high-frequency pulses when the eel is capturing prey or defending itself.In a series of experiments he showed that the electrical pulses the eel produces do not act on the muscles themselves but on the nerves that control the prey’s muscles. This produces strong, involuntary muscle contractions.
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