By Susan Milius
Electric eels evolved hacking long before humans did. Zapping other fish with high-voltage bursts lets eels remotely control their prey’s nervous system to make muscles twitch and clench.
That takeover is how electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) immobilize their prey, Kenneth Catania of Vanderbilt University in Nashville reports in the Dec. 5 Science. And in a series of experiments to explore just what the eels’ high-voltage discharges — delivering up to 600 volts — do to prey physiology, Catania uncovered another spooky effect: Isolated electrical discharges that the eels occasionally release make nearby prey fish twitch involuntarily, giving away any hiding places.