{"id":29933,"date":"2023-06-21T15:20:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T13:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=77914"},"modified":"2023-06-21T15:35:39","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T13:35:39","slug":"how-an-electric-eel-works-you-wouldnt-want-to-be-on-the-receiving-end-of-its-high-voltage-charge","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/how-an-electric-eel-works-you-wouldnt-want-to-be-on-the-receiving-end-of-its-high-voltage-charge\/","title":{"rendered":"How an electric eel works: You wouldn\u2019t want to be on the receiving end of its high voltage charge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know electric eels can produce a hefty shock of 600 volts if needed? Matt Doggett\u00a0take a look at how and why electric eels produce electricity <\/p>

By BBC Wildlife Magazine\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 21 June 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Despite its name, the electric eel is more closely related to carp and catfish than to other eels.<\/span><\/p>\n

How does an electric eel work?<\/h2>\n
Aan electric eel produces electricity in electrocytes \u2013 special cells arranged like stacks of batteries \u2013 found in three separate organs. <\/span><\/p>\n
The rapid transfer of sodium ions along the length of these electrocytes generates an electrical current at either high\nor low voltage, depending on the organ producing the charge. <\/span><\/p>\n
A high-level shock can carry 600 volts (V) at a current of\n1 amp \u2013 enough to kill a human (though this rarely occurs).<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do electric eels produce electricity?<\/h2>\n
Large doses of bioelectricity are used to deter predators or stun prey, while in murky water, low- level charges aid communication, navigation and prey location.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<h2>Does any other animal produce electricity?<\/h2>\nCertain species of catfish and ray also generate electricity using the same method; catfish can produce up to 400V, rays up to 200V. The ability of these different fish to produce electricity is a nice example of convergent evolution \u2013 the independent development of similar adaptations in unrelated species.<br\/><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Did you know electric eels can produce a hefty shock of 600 volts if needed? Matt Doggett\u00a0take a look at how and why electric eels produce electricity <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":29934,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/how-an-electric-eel-works-you-wouldnt-want-to-be-on-the-receiving-end-of-its-high-voltage-charge.jpg",2119,1415,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/how-an-electric-eel-works-you-wouldnt-want-to-be-on-the-receiving-end-of-its-high-voltage-charge-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/how-an-electric-eel-works-you-wouldnt-want-to-be-on-the-receiving-end-of-its-high-voltage-charge-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/how-an-electric-eel-works-you-wouldnt-want-to-be-on-the-receiving-end-of-its-high-voltage-charge-768x513.jpg",768,513,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/how-an-electric-eel-works-you-wouldnt-want-to-be-on-the-receiving-end-of-its-high-voltage-charge-1024x684.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/how-an-electric-eel-works-you-wouldnt-want-to-be-on-the-receiving-end-of-its-high-voltage-charge-1536x1026.jpg",1536,1026,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/how-an-electric-eel-works-you-wouldnt-want-to-be-on-the-receiving-end-of-its-high-voltage-charge-2048x1368.jpg",2048,1368,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Did you know electric eels can produce a hefty shock of 600 volts if needed? Matt Doggett\u00a0take a look at how and why electric eels produce electricity","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/29933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}