Electricity Producing Animals

Don’t you ever wonder if nature can produce electricity? Well if you do, it’s time to wonder about something else, because you are about to find out!

What types of animals use electricity? To tell you the truth, there are many. But some are: Echidnas (they look like a porcupines, but are actually the platypus’ close relative! Others are the platypus themselves, stargazers (they are flat, spiny fish), bees, electric rays and eels. Electric eels are actually not eels, but related to catfish more. There are also geckos, elephant nose fish, sharks, spiders, oriental hornets, and guiana dolphins. Of course there are many more, for example, most birds.

One of the best things you could ask is: Why don’t they, get shocked!!?? I’ll use the eel for example. The eel’s body has about the same dimension as an adult man’s arm. Electricity has to be 50 milliseconds to shock a “man’s arm.” So if the eel has about the same dimension, it can’t kill itself. That’s because the electricity the eels can make, only flows for about two milliseconds. A large current then goes into the water and shocks the opponent. Another possible answer could be that their skin is an insulator, not a conductor, so they can’t get shocked, only if they’re hurt. No person knows for sure if this is true or it has another answer, but this is one of the possible explanations. It’s still a bit of a mystery.

I think it is also useful to know why electric animals need electricity. I will tell you animal by animal. First of all, echidnas and platypus use it to find food. Platypus also use it to sense direction in the water when they don’t use their five senses! Stargazers need electricity to catch (shock) prey and to defend themselves against predators. Bees use electricity to figure out if a flower is worth flying to, which means if a bee has collected nectar from it, they don’t waste time on gathering the left over nectar, but if there is another bee on it, or was a short time ago, they leave it for later. Rays zap prey and predators. Prey with a high shock and predators send out a low “warning”, or “beware”, so they don’t come near. Geckos need electrostatic forces to be able to climb and cling to things, so predators don’t get them and to get closer to flying prey that lands. Elephant nose fish use electricity in their chin to find food, even when it’s dark! The sensitive organs in it can even figure out if something is living or dead. Hornets need electricity as a power source. Spiders need it to make a sticky web so their meal doesn’t get away - spiders actually make the air cleaner. Most animals use electricity to find prey, like sharks or dolphins. Electric eels use electricity to shock prey and to stun predators to stay safe. Even to communicate!

You still need to know at least one more thing: How animals actually produce electricity. I’ll start with the echidna and platypus. They have electroreceptors in their snout and bill, so they can pick up electrical impulses given off by prey. Stargazer fish have special eye muscles that make an electric current, bees do something similar, they send out electric fields, not currents. Electric Rays have kidney shaped organs generating shocks. They can actually control their zaps! Geckos have electrostatic forces on their toe pads. The Elephant nose fish has a long chin - which is not a nose - and that “makes” the electricity. They also use electroreception. Oriental hornets get electricity from the sun. Specialized yellow tissues absorb light and brown tissues generate the electricity. Sharks have receptors like some other animals on their snouts called ampullae of Lorenzini.

Dolphins are born with whiskers attached to their snouts. They send electric fields in the ocean. Like sharks, dolphins have receptors, and inside, some gel. Their crypts are surrounded by blood vessels, connected to their trigeminal nerve, that carries sensory information to the dolphin’s brain.

This is the process of how the eel shocks prey:

Electric eels have electrogenic cells that are disk-shaped. Their nucleus fires the electricity and it also decides when to do so. Cells are like batteries. The current goes through the eel’s body and the nerves make sure all the cells “activate” at once. When the command arrives, the cells release a puff of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter. The cells are oriented inside an organ like batteries in a flashlight, the activated cell shocks its neighbor into action, setting off an “avalanche” of action that runs two milliseconds. That shocks any animal really close to an eel.

I really hope you get the idea of electric animals now. I also hope I answered most of your questions about them! Don’t you think it would be amazing to be able to produce electricity? Well, I do. In my opinion these animals are great! And they have lots of talent too!

Rodriques, Aaron. "12 Animals Who Actually Use Electricity." The Dodo. Dodo.com, Inc, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.

"How Do Electric Eels Generate a Voltage and Why Do They Not Get Shocked in the Process?" Scientific American. N.p., 5 Dec. 2005. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.