A new study has detailed how electric eels can double the voltage of their jolts by adjusting the positions of the positive and negative poles of their electric organ.
The scientist who conducted the research also described how the eels use electrical pulses as a radar system to track prey as well as to immobilize prey by causing strong, involuntary muscle contractions in an electrifying form of remote control.
Vanderbilt University neurobiologist Kenneth Catania said some have viewed electric eels as unsophisticated, primitive creatures with a single tool in the toolbox — shocking their prey to death — while in reality they manipulate their electric fields in complex ways that only now are being appreciated.