December 16, 2010

Yikes - Electric Eel v/s river alligator

Back in the late 70's / early 80's, I used to work for a large public aquarium in Boston. I also used to install Disco sound and lighting equipment but that is another story entirely... One of my tasks was to maintain the electronic equipment that was used to monitor a tank with eels in it. It would make a noise every time the eel discharged which was fairly frequent. Here is an Amazonian fisherman who has caught an eel, who doesn't know what to do with it and a small river alligator comes along looking for a snack. Bad career move...
The job at the aquarium was a lot of fun. I am very much into photography and one of the eels went pining for the fjords and I got to shoot the necropsy. The eel has a line of structures along its length which can trigger in unison. Only a volt or two for each structure (about the size of a dime) but the critter can deliver a healthy jolt when pissed. The 'gator is probably just badly stunned and should recover in a day or two. Posted by DaveH at December 16, 2010 9:28 PM
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