© L. SousaElectrophorus voltai is one of the two newly discovered electric eel species
An investigation into the diversity of electric eels has produced quite a shock. Rather than just one
species, there are actually three species of electric eels living in South America, and one of them generates a bigger voltage than any other bioelectric animal.
Electric eels were first described 250 years ago by
Carl Linnaeus, who gave them the species name
Electrophorus electricus. They use their shocking power to
hunt prey and defend themselves, while weaker electrical signals help them to navigate and communicate.
David de Santana at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, and colleagues studied 107 specimens from across the Amazon region, analysing their
genetics, morphology and geographical spread. They discovered that there are three species with different distributions: the original species
E. electricus in the northern highlands,
E. voltai in the southern highlands and
E. varii in the lowland Amazon basin.
E. voltai is the largest, growing up to 1.7 metres long compared with 1.0 metres for the shortest, E. electricus. The researchers measured the electric discharge generated by E. voltai at 860 volts - considerably higher than the 650 volts reported before. This makes it the strongest living bioelectricity generator we know of.
Comment: Some recent reports demonstrating the increasingly aggressive behavior shown by bears which have resulted in serious injuries and even fatalities: