Shocking discovery: Electric eels hunt in packs in Amazon rivers
Social predation spotted for the first time among these animals
When darkness comes, electric eels emerge from South American river bottoms to attack their prey with up to 860 volts of electricity—enough to kill a person. Now, scientists have revealed the snakelike fish don't always go it alone: They hunt in packs, similar to wolves, orcas, and some species of tuna. The finding, a first among electric fishes, may open the way for new studies to investigate when social predation evolved among fishes.
"I was shocked," says Douglas Bastos, a biologist at the National Institute of Amazonian Research who first saw a group attack in 2012. Usually the eels, which can grow as long as a broomstick and weigh up to 20 kilograms, prey alone at night, targeting single resting fishes, he notes. "This behavior is unprecedented for electrical eels and also rare among freshwater fishes"...
Read more: https://www.science.org/content/article/shocking-discovery-electric-eels-hunt-packs-amazon-rivers-2















