<\/p>
Wolf eels are scary-looking fish, with crab-crunching teeth, powerful jaws and speckled, grey bodies that look like they\u2019ve been sculpted from a block of granite. They can live for at least 20 years and are enormous, up to 2.4 metres long, although mostly they hide their tapering bodies in caves and crevices in rocky reefs with just their heads sticking out.<\/p>\n
Wolf eels are not actually eels,\u00a0but are members of a fish family known as wolf\u00a0fish or sea wolves. They live in the cold waters of the North Pacific, from California to the Sea of Japan, down to around 200 metres underwater.<\/p>\n
They begin life as small, transparent larvae drifting through the seas, then develop into bright orange juveniles. These young\u00a0fish\u00a0swim through open waters until they\u2019re ready to settle down. Then they search for a suitable cave and a partner.<\/p>\n
A male and female tend their clutches of eggs, up to 10,000 at a time, protectively wrapping their bodies around them and aerating them with oxygen-rich water. The eggs take four months to hatch and all the while the male and female take turns to leave the cave and hunt. Once the baby eels have hatched and left, the parents set about raising their next clutch. Wolf eels mate for life.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don\u2019t forget to include your name and location)<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Dr Helen Scales Published: Wednesday, 20 July 2022 at 12:00 am Wolf eels are scary-looking fish, with crab-crunching teeth, powerful jaws and speckled, grey bodies that look like they\u2019ve been sculpted from a block of granite. They can live for at least 20 years and are enormous, up to 2.4 metres long, although mostly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":15746,"template":"","categories":[30],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-wolf-eel.jpg",1200,511,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-wolf-eel-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-wolf-eel-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-wolf-eel-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-wolf-eel-1024x436.jpg",800,341,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-wolf-eel.jpg",1200,511,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/what-is-a-wolf-eel.jpg",1200,511,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Dr Helen Scales Published: Wednesday, 20 July 2022 at 12:00 am Wolf eels are scary-looking fish, with crab-crunching teeth, powerful jaws and speckled, grey bodies that look like they\u2019ve been sculpted from a block of granite. They can live for at least 20 years and are enormous, up to 2.4 metres long, although mostly…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/15745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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