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Can an electric eel stun a horse? (sciencecards.org)

submitted 2 days ago by stuartml@piefed.social to c/ScienceOnlyFacts@lemmy.world

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The electric eel can stun their prey by delivering a shock of up to 860 volts. According to one study, the shocks from leaping electric eels are powerful enough to drive away animals as large as horses by activating the nociceptor sensory neurons in the horse. The electric eel stacks some 6,000 electrocytes in series (longitudinally) in its main organ; the organ contains some 35 such stacks in parallel, on each side of its body. The eel can either use its electrical discharge to locate pray (electrolocate) or to stun them. It is said that Volta was inspired by the electric eel in inventing the voltaic pile, the first electrical battery that could continuously provide an electric current to a circuit. Volta does casually mention the electric eel in an essay.

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[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 3 points 2 days ago

Depends on whether the horse is broken in: if it's still green, it will have a lot of resistance.

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