You Don't Want To Touch An Electric Eel

Of all our discoveries,

electric

ity is probably in the top three, but we are not the only ones learning to harness it. These animals are of the

electric

type. Today we are going to do some very interesting experiments. Find out something about electricity. The bitter feeling. what you feel is the taste of electricity passing through your tongue hello, I'm jess keating and you are seeing animal logic, a second nature that lives mainly in our lakes and oceans, there are two broad categories of electrical animals, passive and aggressive, This need to maintain an electrical balance is potential electrical energy Passive electrical animals are electroreceptive, meaning they are able to detect electric fields to find prey Monstrous chimera echidnas Platypus sharks Bees and many other species are all electroreceptive to detect electricity These species have small holes in their bodies with electroreceptive organs, by calculating the voltage difference in the electroreceptors throughout their body, they can sense where other fish are and, in some cases, what type of fish they are and how big the aggressive ones are. the second category of electric animals. electricity these types are capable of creating their own electric field and are called electrogenic, while there are some electroreceptive species on earth for the electrogenic we will have to go out to sea the bottom of the ocean is a dream world silent bath mystical unreal most Fish species that are electrogenic are also electroreceptive and only a handful of them produce a noticeable discharge.

About 38 species in total. What is particularly interesting about electric animals is that they are not closely related to the ability to create an electric shock. It evolved independently at least eight times, so there must be something to this. Now, when an eel locates a fish or money is disturbed, it delivers what we call the double whammy. We're not entirely sure how electrogenic species evolved, but the leading theory is that they evolved from electroreceptive species. The theory is that in electroreceptor fish species their electrical organs were very active and capable of generating enough electrical activity to be detected by the fish's own electroreceptors.

Finding use in this development, these fish began to use discharge as a means of communication with other fish, as well as navigation in their murky habitats, as they gained more control of their electrical organs, they were able to generate more energy and eventually became came back strong enough to stun their prey, does this mean that if we are lucky enough to not burn the world to the ground that it is marginally possible that in 5,000 years we will have echidnas that produce electrical discharges, I hope their electrical organs are formed by disc-shaped nerve or muscle cells called electrocytes, these electrocytes stack up and when they fire the charge moves along them creating an overload of up to 600 volts in some species to protect themselves from electrocution.

Their bodies, connective and adipose tissue are isolated, but it is not 100 effective and some people have been seen suffering from spasms. The most dangerous electrical species is the electric eel which isn't even an eel now the eel part of its name may not be correct but it sure came for the electrical part honestly that was bad right? These beauties can measure up to two meters long and their bodies are covered in electrocytes. allowing them to wrap around their prey to attack them from all angles, these fish are the ones that can produce 600 volts of electricity, approximately the same as 400 AAA batteries, when the eel is discharged, it causes uncontrollable muscle spasms that paralyze their prey and, sometimes if the charge is strong enough to cause the prey to go into cardiac arrest, but even tougher than electric eels are the ones that jump.

These eels leap out of the water to electrocute potential predators in an act of preventive self-defense. They do this because the South American jungle ponds they live in dry up during the dry season, leaving them vulnerable to predators. Jumping out of the water is the best way to tell them to back off. By the way, it is also the most painful to jump and

touch

your potential predator out of the water they spawn. more power since the pulses do not dissipate in water a jumping electric eel has enough power to kill a horse, there are stories of livestock horses, even humans, dying from the electric shock of eels, in fact, to Along the Amazon River, ranchers listened to eels in shallow water and then killed them with their machetes.

Interestingly, eels know when to use their shock, they use their electroreceptors to sense if an object is creating an electric field and therefore they are alive, if they are not, they won. They do not attack these eels, they also use their electricity during courtship in an attempt to boo the female. The male will serenade you with songs encoded in electrical charges. The only way to describe the issues at Joe's table is to say that they are downright shocking second. The dangerous electric species is the electric catfish, like its cousins, the electric eels. The electric catfish is a river fish and can be found throughout tropical Africa along the Nile.

These long fish pack less punch and can only produce 350 volts. Well, it's very soft, it's not that strong. As much as electric heels, but still enough to stun an adult human or light a light bulb, it should give us enough power to turn on the lights. Electrical rays, also known as torpedo fish, are a type of lightning that can produce a discharge of up to 220 volts. They are found throughout the world in warm, shallow waters, although some species live at depths of up to 1,000 meters. Electrics are being molded and are located on the dorsal side of their flat bodies on either side of their head.

They use their electricity in self-defense when hunting prey and to navigate their discharges are quite painful and cannot be reached by a human being. Electrical rays were captured and their discharges were used in ancient Greece and Rome to treat gout and other ailments and finally we come to the ugliest electrical species the astronomer what is that you just threw at the baby I didn't know the baby was there what's that what's that's like an astronomer I think they're very poisonous I think I

touch

ed the spike at some point, these beauties can only produce up to 50 volts and we're not entirely sure what they use it for.

Their electrical organs are located behind their eyes and when they discharge the current flows throughout their body, the shock is not very strong and they do not seem to use it to stun their prey, but have been observed discharging electricity in short bursts to attract to his companions. There is electricity in water, as they say. So what should we talk about next? As always, leave us a note below and don't. Don't forget to subscribe to receive new episodes of Animal Logic Second Nature every two weeks. Thanks so much for looking. Did you know that if I were blindfolded, I would hate trying to catch a greased pig just by listening to its squeal?