Susan Hare, age 11, of Seattle, Wash.; for her question:
Can the electric eel really give a shock?
One of these fellows can discharge an elect‑ c shock strong enough to stun a horse. A small house requires about 110 electric voltage. A grown electric eel, from three to nine feet long, has from 600 to 700 volts at his disposal. He can use this power to give perhaps 300 shocks a second over a long period of time. He is dangerous because this kind of shock can stun a swimmer and leave him to drown.
The electric eel is not a true eel, but a distant relative of the catfish. In fact, Africa has a native electric catfish. The torpedo fish, found off the shores of North America, is also equipped with an electric dynamo. He is a flat, round fish. One variety, found from Cape Cod southward, may weigh 200 pounds. A smaller variety enjoys life off the Pacific coast from San Diego to Canada.
The dynamo inside these fellows is made of special nerve tissue. Like any electric dynamo it has two poles, one positive and one negative. In the water, which is an excellent conductor of electricity, the battery will discharge when either pole is touched.. It takes this built‑in battery time to recharge after it has been discharged.
The battery of the electric eel is built into his tail. About four fifths of his long, snaky body is tail and about two thirds of the tail is filled with the special nerve tissue which can generate electricity. Apart from this formidable weapon, the electric eel is rather a helpless creature.
He has not the slender grace of the true eel for a curtain of fin stretches along almost the entire length of his underside. He has no teeth, scales or even a backbone, At best he is a sluggish fellow, coming up to grab a breath of air every few minutes. If forced to stay under water ten minutes he drowns.
The electric eel is a native of South American waters. He is most at home in the sluggish streams which feed the Amazon and the Orinoco. So far as we know, the powerful battery has three uses: it is a weapon of defense. When touched or threatened, the lazy fellow discharges his electric batteries at full blast for a long period of time. He also uses them to stun frogs, small fish and the other small game on which he feeds.
It is also believed that the electric eel uses his voltage as a sort of radar device. He sands off small discharges whenever he stirs himself to go for a lazy swim. These impulses may be echo finders which return with information about his surroundings.
We do not know the life story of the electric eel. But it is suspected that he returns to the back swamp lands to breed during the rainy seasons. Come spring, the parent eel returns with a squadron of one‑inch infants swimming around its head. The infants stay close to the Big Battery until they are six inches long.