Photograph by George Grall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
Welcome to Wild Facts!\u00a0 If this is your first time stumbling upon our crazy little place to learn all about animal facts than please feel free to snoop around.\u00a0 As well you can leave a comment or send me an e-mail if you have any questions or would like some additional information about an animal.\u00a0 If you happen to be one of the regular readers than welcome back and thanks for all of your support so far.\u00a0 All of you reading this are in for a shocking post today.\u00a0 No I mean it will literally be electrifying since we are going to look at the always interesting Electric Eel.\u00a0 What can possibly be cooler than a fish that can give you a huge electrical shock? Well, I guess it would be pretty groovy if we had sharks with laser beams but let’s not get ridiculous (Bonus Wild Fact point if you caught the movie reference in that last line).<\/p>\n
The first thing you need to know about the Electric Eel is they are not eels.\u00a0 Yes they have the same “snake-like” appearance as our eel friends but they are actually more closely related to other fish such as carp and catfish.\u00a0 As we all know the Electric Eel is able to produce an electric charge which they use to stun their prey or to defend against predators. Just how powerful is their electric charge? Good question and I had a hunch that you would ask this so I came prepared.\u00a0 The Electric Eel actually has about 6000 specialized cells, called electrocytes, which store power like little batteries.\u00a0 These cells are able to produce a charge of about 600 volts.\u00a0 For the record a standard plug-in is only about 120 volts (in North America) so the Electric Eel can generate 5 times the power of a plug-in.\u00a0 If you want to know what this feels like than stick a fork in the socket and multiply that by 5.\u00a0 I AM KIDDING!\u00a0 Where are you going? Geez, don’t actually stick a fork in the socket! Are you nuts? Luckily human deaths from an electric eel are very rare but repeatedly getting shocked could cause heart failure.\u00a0 As well, some people have drowned after being stunned by these shocking eel-like fish. I recommend you try not to get shocked by an Electric Eel but I will let you decide what you want to do.<\/p>\n
Electric Eel Fast Fact – <\/strong>The Electric Eel has relatively poor eyesight but is capable of producing a low level electric charge that helps paint a picture of their surroundings.\u00a0 And we thought bats that used sonar were cool.\u00a0 Eat your heart out Little Brown Bat!<\/p>\nThanks for stopping by Wild Facts and I look forward to seeing you around.\u00a0 Have a great day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Welcome to Wild Facts!\u00a0 If this is your first time stumbling upon our crazy little place to learn all about animal facts than please feel free to snoop around.\u00a0 As well you can leave a comment or send me an e-mail if you have any questions or would like some additional information about an animal.\u00a0 If you happen to be one of the regular readers than welcome back and thanks for all of your support so far.\u00a0 All of you reading this are in for a shocking post today.\u00a0 No I mean it will literally be electrifying since we are <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[64,4024],"tags":[348,599,600,954,955,4116,451,4025],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/wild-facts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/electric-eel.jpg\" "\\"electric-eel\\"")
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