---
title: "What the sources say about the Volta Electric Eel | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "44 claims from the Volta Electric Eel profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it."
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# What the sources say about the Volta Electric Eel (*Electrophorus voltai*)

> 44 claims from the Volta Electric Eel profile, each beside the words of the source that backs it. A "..." marks a cut in a quote and [brackets] an insertion.

Profile: [Volta Electric Eel](https://animaltracks.wiki/animals/electric-eel/)

## de Santana et al. (2019). Unexpected species diversity in electric eels with a description of the strongest living bioelectricity generator. Nature Communications.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11690-z

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| The biological super-battery that hit 860 volts, the strongest electric discharge known from any living animal | For one of the new species, we recorded a discharge of 860 V, well above 650 V previously cited for Electrophorus, making it the strongest living bioelectricity generator. |
| firing up to 860 volts | high-voltage EOD 860 V at 1219 mm TL (Fig. 4d), n = 1 (note: 860 V is the only E. voltai discharge measured (n = 1), so it is the recorded maximum. Haddad et al. 2025 also give 'up to 860 volts' for Electrophorus spp.) |
| Rocky shield rivers and streams, including rapids and waterfalls | Shield streams and rivers are ... include rocky substrates, rapids, and waterfalls |
| in generally north-flowing rivers of the Brazilian Shield and south-flowing rivers of the Guiana Shield, South America | voltai occurs in generally north-flowing rivers of the Brazilian shield and south-flowing rivers of the Guyana shield (note: Species-specific range from the describing paper. The old habitat said 'murky' and 'highland', neither of which the paper uses; it describes shield waters as normoxic, low-conductivity and rocky.) |
| Bioelectrogenesis discharging up to 860 volts | high-voltage EOD 860 V at 1219 mm TL (Fig. 4d), n = 1 |
| In 2019, researchers described a new species, Volta's electric eel (Electrophorus voltai), and recorded one specimen discharging 860 volts | high-voltage EOD 860 V at 1219 mm TL (Fig. 4d), n = 1 (note: 2019 is the paper's publication year, in which E. voltai is described as sp. nov.) |
| well above the 650 volts previously reported for electric eels | For one of the new species, we recorded a discharge of 860 V, well above 650 V previously cited for Electrophorus |
| That makes Volta's electric eel the strongest living bioelectricity generator known | making it the strongest living bioelectricity generator |
| The Strongest Bio-Electricity on Earth | making it the strongest living bioelectricity generator |
| Described as a new species in 2019 | two of which warrant recognition as new species. For one of the new species, we recorded a discharge of 860 V (note: 2019 is the paper's publication year.) |
| it holds the record for the strongest electric discharge measured in any living animal | The discharge recorded of E . voltai is distinctly higher than any voltage previously cited for Electrophorus 2 , 3 , making it the strongest bioelectricity generator known. |
| a single specimen jolted out 860 volts | high-voltage EOD 860 V at 1219 mm TL (Fig. 4d), n = 1 |

## Electric eel. Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/electric-eel

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Mainly fish, plus crustaceans, insects, amphibians and small mammals | Adult electric eels are generalist carnivores, eating fish, crustaceans, insects and small vertebrates, such as amphibians, reptiles and mammals. (note: Genus-level: the Zoo page is for Electrophorus electricus in the pre-2019 sense. No diet study specific to E. voltai was found.) |
| South American knifefish | More than 220 species of South American knifefish in the electric eel's lineage |
| When hunting in dark, murky water | In the dark and murky waters they inhabit, prey can be difficult to spot. (note: Genus-level (Zoo page for pre-split E. electricus), so the sentence says 'an electric eel', not E. voltai.) |
| When it suspects prey is hiding nearby, it often fires a doublet, two rapid high-voltage pulses | When the eel suspects a prey item is nearby, it emits two rapid electric pulses, called a doublet. |

## How do electric eels work? Natural History Museum, London.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-do-electric-eels-work.html

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| A bio-battery of stacked electrocytes | Electric eels are like living batteries ... They have stacks of modified muscle cells called electrocytes |
| with shocks that help it deter predators such as caiman | This is when their electric shock abilities are particularly valuable, helping to deter predators such as jaguars and caiman. |
| Mainly fish | diet is primarily made up of fish, but they will also eat crabs, insects, amphibians and mammals |
| the electric eel is a South American knifefish belonging to the order Gymnotiformes. It is more closely related to catfishes and carp than to the "true" eels in the order Anguilliformes | Though they're commonly called eels, they're not Anguilliformes, which are 'true' eels. Instead, electric eels belong to the order Gymnotiformes, also known as knifefishes, and are more closely related to catfishes and carp. |
| an electric eel can leap partly out of the water | Electric eels are able to leap partially out of the water and press themself against a predator. |
| the most positively charged part of its body | attach the most positively charged part of their body – their chin – to the predator |
| instead of into the water | This prevents electrical charge dispersing out into the water and instead all the electricity gets dumped into whatever is trying to catch it |
| Despite its name and snake-like body, the Volta Electric Eel (Electrophorus voltai) is actually a knifefish, more closely related to catfish than to true eels | Electric eels are long, cylindrical fish with flattened heads. Though they're commonly called eels, they're not Anguilliformes, which are 'true' eels. Instead, electric eels belong to the order Gymnotiformes, also known as knifefishes, and are more closely related to catfishes and carp. |
| nearly four times the voltage of a standard UK plug socket | They can generate up to 860 volts of electricity ... nearly four times the voltage of a standard UK plug socket. (note: Cited for the socket comparison only. The same NHM sentence credits 860 V to E. varii, which is wrong: de Santana et al. recorded it in E. voltai. Replaces an unsourced 'over seven times a US wall outlet' (120 V appeared in no source).) |
| Living batteries | Electric eels are like living batteries |
| About 80% of an electric eel's body is taken up by three electric organs | Electric eels have three special organs that help them create electricity. ... These organs take up about 80% of the eel |
| built from stacks of electrocytes, modified muscle cells that each have a positive and a negative side | They have stacks of modified muscle cells called electrocytes that have both a positive and a negative side. |

## Catania (2016). Leaping eels electrify threats, supporting Humboldt's account of a battle with horses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1604009113

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| press its chin, the most positively charged part of its body, against the threat while firing off volleys of high-voltage discharges | The behavior consists of an approach and leap out of the water during which the eel presses its chin against a threatening conductor while discharging high-voltage volleys. |
| The higher it rises, the more of its power is diverted through the threat | The effect is to short-circuit the electric organ through the threat, with increasing power diverted to the threat as the eel attains greater height during the leap. |
| The behavior supports a famous account from March 1800, when the explorer Alexander von Humboldt watched fishermen herd horses into a pool of electric eels, which attacked by pressing themselves against the horses while discharging | In March 1800, Alexander von Humboldt observed the extraordinary spectacle of native fisherman collecting electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) by "fishing with horses" ... The strategy was to herd horses into a pool containing electric eels, provoking the eels to attack by pressing themselves against the horses while discharging. ... This legendary tale of South American adventures helped propel Humboldt to fame ... Here I report a defensive eel behavior that supports Humboldt's account. (note: Catania 2019 adds that Humboldt 'did not describe eels as leaping out of the water', so the old 'described electric eels leaping' and 'shrinking pool' were cut.) |

## Catania (2019). The Astonishing Behavior of Electric Eels. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2019.00023

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| No one had worked it out as of 2019, when a scientific review of electric eel behavior listed how an eel protects its own nervous system from its high-voltage discharge among the questions that remain to be investigated | How does an eel protect its own nervous system from the high-voltage EOD? These are just a few of the many questions that remain to be investigated. (note: 2019 is the review's publication year. Replaces a 2005 Scientific American Q&A (a magazine, 20 years old) and a Zoo sentence about organ layout that the Zoo never links to self-protection.) |
| High-Voltage Remote Muscle Control | Eels use their high-voltage electric discharge to remotely control prey by transcutaneously activating motor neurons. |
| two rapid high-voltage pulses that hijack the prey's nervous system and make its muscles twitch involuntarily | Eels use their high-voltage electric discharge to remotely control prey by transcutaneously activating motor neurons. Hunting eels use this behavior in two different ways. When prey have been detected, eels use high-voltage to cause immobility by inducing sustained, involuntary muscle contractions. On the other hand, when prey are hidden, eels often use brief pulses to induce prey twitch |
| giving away roughly where it is hiding | When prey are hidden, or their identity is uncertain, eels can induce involuntary twitch, revealing their approximate location |
| Between 20 and 40 milliseconds after the twitch, a full high-voltage volley | eels responded to the twitch with a high-voltage volley and strike toward the preparation with a delay of 20–40 ms (note: With live prey the review says the doublet is 'followed (20–40 ms later) by the eel’s full, tetanus inducing high-voltage volley and suction feeding strike'.) |
| a full high-voltage volley freezes the prey in place and the eel strikes | When prey have been detected, eels use high-voltage to cause immobility by inducing sustained, involuntary muscle contractions. |

## Haddad Júnior et al. (2025). Two Clinical Records of Human Injuries with a Death caused by Electric Eels Electrophorus spp. Gill, 1864. Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical.

https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0007-2025

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| of direct electrical current | each comprising from tens to hundreds of individual monophasic EODs (containing only DC content) |
| In 1997, a 23-year-old man bathing in a Brazilian river convulsed after touching an electric eel, went under | In September 1997, a doctor on duty in an emergency service at a riverside hospital in Northern Tocantins State, Brazil, responded to an emergency with a 23-year-old male patient whose companions reported seeing him come into contact with an electric eel. The incident occurred in a shallow section of a small tributary of the Tocantins river where they were bathing. The patient's companions reported that he convulsed at the surface of the water, then submerged and disappeared from sight. |
| and likely drowned | The shocks caused muscle rigidity, and the victim likely drowned because of muscle contracture. |
| A 2025 medical report calls it the first reliable clinical record of a death caused by an electric eel | We also present the first reliable clinical report of death caused by an electric eel, with the cause of mortis likely to be drowning. (note: 2025 is the report's publication year.) |
| and names Volta's electric eel as the most likely species | The image quality in Figure 3 is insufficient to facilitate species-level identification; however, given its geographical locality, E. voltai is the most likely species. |
| an adult electric eel gives off weak pulses of around 10 volts to sense its surroundings | The EODs of all gymnotiforms are used for object location in the dark and communication, but Electrophorus generates three types of EODs: a low-voltage (~10V in adults) discharge for electrolocation and communication |

## Lyons (2021). Electrophorus voltai. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T204715926A204826094.

https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2021-3.rlts.t204715926a204826094.en

| The page says | The source says |
| :--- | :--- |
| Least Concern | Electrophorus voltai. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T204715926A204826094 (note: stats.conservationStatus. Hand check: iucnredlist.org refuses scripts (403). GBIF's relay of the Red List for the same IUCN taxon reads verbatim: {"category":"LEAST_CONCERN",..."iucnTaxonID":"204715926","code":"LC"} (https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/10754516/iucnRedListCategory). The Zoo and NatGeo 'least concern' lines are for pre-split E. electricus (Zoo: 'as of 2009') and don't cover this species.) |