Never give up: Epic Eel chestburster escape!

 I think this eel's escape plan may have been inspired by a certain chest-burster scene from Alien - where the Xenomorph escapes across the table....

You'd think this would be the end of the day right? The bird would have plummeted from the sky?

Nope:

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What happens when this Alligator bites are an electric eel will shock you!

A bad move by an electric eel has a shocking result when this crocodile / caiman nabs it for a bite!

Even though the gator appears surprised when he feels the surge of energy from the eel, he keeps chomping down like a chompin' champ.

Or, a counter argument is that the strength of the electrocution is so strong that the mouth is involuntarily biting down and the gator has no choice but to keep going and try and kill his prey.

Apparently this was filmed on the Amazon.



As you can see in the video, the eel does a really great job at zapping his captor.

The gator has taken quite the jolt and appears to be quite stunned. You might think the alligator is dead due to the way he appears to lilt in the water however his leg kicks in the last second of the video suggesting signs of life.

Either way, this is a lesson for alligators everywhere to stay away from electric eels!

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Puffin eating a mouthful of sandeels

An adult puffin bird prepares to enter a burrow, holding a mouthful of yummy sandeels in its beak to feed its chicks, on Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The sandeels are presumably for it's offspring.

Image Source

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When Morary Eels feel pekish, what do they eat?

What do Morary Eels eat when they feel pekish?

Moray eels are carnivores and their diet consists mainly of other fish or cephalopods, as well as mollusks and crustaceans. They go hunting mostly at night and their chief hunting tool is their excellent sense of smell which makes up for their poor eyesight. This means that weakened or dead creatures tend to be easy to detect and are therefore the moray eel's favoured food source.

Moray eels are cosmopolitan eels of the family known as  Muraenidae. The approximately 200 species in 15 genera are almost exclusively marine, but several species are regularly seen in brackish water. Don't not confuse them with fresh water eels or Boris the Eel! 


The longest moray species, the slender giant moray (Strophidon sathete) reaches up to 4 metres (13 ft). The largest in terms of total mass is the giant moray (Gymnothorax javanicus), which reaches almost 3 metres (9.8 ft) and can weigh over 36 kilograms. That's more than Posh Spice!

Got my eye on you buddy!

Moray eels' heads are too narrow to create the negative pressure that most fish use to swallow prey. Quite possibly because of this, they have evolved a second set of jaws in their throat called pharyngeal jaws, which also possess teeth. When feeding, morays launch these jaws into the mouth, where they grasp prey and transport it into the throat and digestive system for a yum sea food dish. Moray eels are the only animal that uses pharyngeal jaws to actively capture and restrain prey, check out the diagram below of how it works.

This is direct proof that Moray eels are descendants of the Aliens from the Sci fi movies:

If that doesn't convince you, would telling you they are also descendents of leopards help? I bring you the leopard moray eel! So named for its spots, it was picked on at eel school by the other eels as they thought he had real bad acne....

I'm a leopard, hear me roar!

Moray eel are not known to go about deliberately attacking divers but when startled they do not hesitate to lash out with their infamous 'double jaw attack move'. This picture below is supposedly the result of the bite of a startled eel:

Sorry if you lost your lunch there with that last image. Any ways, enjoy some more pictures of moray: 


Orange

Green:

 and a dirty red one thus being you an eel traffic light!

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What do eels eat? Ducks? Fish?

Spare duck, maam?

What do eels eat? Ducks? Fish?


Well apparently Boris the eel likes to eat baby ducklings so we might be on to something. But first what are eels?


Eels are elongated fishes, and look like snakes. Most eels prefer to dwell in shallow waters or hide at the bottom layer of the ocean, sometimes in holes. Some eels dwell in water as deep as 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). Others are fairly active swimmers and some have even been known to travel across dry land in search of bodies of water. 

Did I leave the oven on?

But what do they eat? This article suggests that a freshwater eel is believed responsible for the disappearance of water fowl, small ducks and possibly birds at the pond near the Eagle Vale Leisure Centre, somewhere in Australia.


New Zealand's department of Conservation's site tells us that freshwater eels eat "live" food. Small long-finned eels living amongst the river gravels will feed on insect larvae, worms and water snails. When they get bigger, they begin to feed on fish. They will also eat fresh-water crayfish and even small birds like ducklings (like Boris!).

Sometimes however, eels with find themselves on the back foot - nature will strike back and in return for eating a swan's sweet tasty little goslings, the swan will simply eat the eel!

No gag reflex?

Humans also love to eat eels as well. The Japanese and Maori people are well known to love eel on their sushi or smoked. And sometimes kids land grown up kids love to go eeling for the sake of it:

And another proud Kiwi family showing off their catch:

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Boris the Eel, off the hook!

THERE SHE IS: Michelle Cook, and her boys Jacob Hitchcock, 5, left, and Carter Hitchcock, 3, were very pleased to see Boris, inset, swimming happily near the Teahouse .

Boris the enormous eel can get back to keeping the local duckling population under control now a nasty hook is out of her lip.

The famous long-finned fish had Pukekura Park staff extremely anxious earlier this week after a member of the public spotted her swimming about with the barb in her mouth.

Park curator Chris Conolly said the fishing hook had probably been left behind by a bunch of children who captured and killed a number of other eels at the park a fortnight ago.

"We needed to remove the hook for her own health, rather than let it rust out," Mr Connolly said earlier this week.

He had planned to set a net for the injured Boris on Thursday night, then take the hook out, but the clever creature appears to have saved him the trouble by working the barb out by herself.

The park's Teahouse manager, Jodie Paice, was the first to see Boris without her unwelcome accessory.

"She normally comes out about lunchtime when there's lots of people here feeding the ducks," Miss Paice said.

"So I saw her on Thursday afternoon and I didn't see the hook or any tears in her mouth or anything."

The Taranaki Daily News then went on an eel hunt of its own, along with Mr Connolly, and managed to get some photographs of the two-metre-long Boris swimming happily near the Teahouse deck.

There was no sign of the hook or any injuries, except perhaps in the way the elderly eel only mouthed some food, rather than gobbling it whole as usual.

"I'm just so pleased to see that she's OK," Mr Connolly said.

Some of the smaller visitors to the park were glad to see Boris was OK, too, especially one very excited Carter Hitchcock, 3.

"There he is! There he goes! There he is again," little Carter said.

"Oh, I like him."

Carter didn't like the eel enough to take her home, however – even though his mum offered him the chance – so Boris will remain at the lake for now, hopefully without any more hassles.

All plants and animals, including eels at Pukekura Park are protected. Anyone breaking that rule can be prosecuted.

Story: Stuff

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