It’s True: Electric Eels Can Leap From the Water to Attack | National Geographic

the eel has this challenge that when it
gives off electricity that electricity
is distributed around the eel in the
water a predator that that is on land
and reaching into that pool may not
receive very much of a shot you’ve got
this tail from 1800 about Alexander von
Humboldt who went to South America to
collect electric eels and do experiments
on their electrical output
the electric eels went on the offensive
and pressed themselves against the
horses while shocking them
it shows an eel having essentially left
out of the water and pressing its chin
against the belly of one of the horses
if you reach in with one hand and touch
an electric eel while it’s giving off
its high voltage you don’t feel very
much if the eel starts to come out of
the water with its positive end that the
chin touching the predator the voltage
increases as the eel ascends the current
path that would normally take the
electricity back to the water is getting
more and more resistive as the eel
ascends the conductor and so the eel is
leveraging this basic principle to sort
of turn up the volume on the attack as
the eel emerges out of the water
each time you see one of those LEDs
flash those would be the nerve fibers
firing in that predator if I use an
insulated glove and then put a
conductive glove I can essentially
demonstrate this on a small scale
essentially what you’ve got there is a
an electric fence in the form of a fish