We all know that electricity is a source of energy, but not all of us know that there are animals out there in the wild that have electrical abilities. If you’re one of those people who thought that humans were the first to generate electricity, you were definitely wrong. If you also think that there is no way that an animal can produce powerful electrical currents with its organs, you are also wrong. On this list there are ten animals with fascinating electrical abilities. Some have a special need for electricity, some are attracted to electricity, and some have also helped us humans to come up with new solutions for generating electricity. Most of the animals on this list live in the water; some are insects, and they all have one thing in common – their amazing electrical abilities.
10. The Elephant-nose fish
Elephantnose fishes are very smart, and they also have an incredible ability of being able to produce electricity. They have an amazing ability to navigate in total darkness, especially to find food. No matter how dark it is at night, the elephantnose can perceive and analyze different objects and hindrances in size and structure. They are a freshwater species that inherit the river basins in West Africa, and that is because they prefer to swim among slow moving waters in large rivers. Their bodies are dark brown in color, slim and also compressed. Every elephantnose has a long chin barbel, suggesting the origin of its name. They also have sensory receptors that are electrical, and therefore called electric sensory receptors. They use the sensory receptors to hunt for worms and insects, usually at night. In the nose of the fish there are more than 500 specialized electrical sensory cells that are able to detect small changes in the electrical field in its surroundings. The electric receptors are distributed throughout the ventral and dorsal regions of its body. These sensors in its nose can detect electrical fields caused by potential prey, especially aquatic insects that hide under the surface on the ground of a pond or river. When the elephantnose hunt for its prey on the surface or ground of the river, it's like when a geologist searches for minerals with a metal detector. They also have an electric organ located in the base of their tails that produce a low level of an electric discharge.
9. Electric Rays
All Electric Ray species are best known for their highly specialized electrogenic organs – which are generally kidney-shaped. These organs have fascinating electrical abilities that are composed of stacks of 500 to 1 000 striated muscle plaques that have been modified from the gill musculature. The head and upper body of many ray species form a flattened disc, with large pectoral fins creating a large skirt around the edge. On either side of the head is where the kidney-shaped electrogenic organs are located, visible externally as protuberances around the level of the eyes, which are responsible for generating electrical shocks. These electrical organs can deliver a powerful electrical shock, which can be employed in defense when threatened. The voltage potential recorded from different electric rays is not similar. Some ray's electric shock potential has been measured at as little as 8 to 37 volts, others can reach the voltage power of up to 220 volts. The Pacific Torpedo Ray generates two distinct types of electrical pulse – one for warning predators – and the other for stunning prey with powerful blasts. Electric Rays were also used by ancient Greeks as a kind of anaesthetic – the electricity supposedly numbing the pain of operations and childbirths.
8. Oriental Hornets
Hornets have been counted along with some of the deadliest insects in the world because of their highly toxic stings. Today these insects are not only recognized for their deadly aspects. Another significant discovery revealed that these insects are also the most competent solar power experts. They had solar cells long before Homo Sapiens first walked on earth.
It turns out that the hornets have evolved ingenious adaptations to harvest sunlight. Oriental Hornets have solar cells built into their exoskeleton. Most of their cuticle on their exoskeleton is brown, but a few sections are yellow. Both the brown and yellow pigments are involved in mopping up energy, which are made up of many layers laid on top of each other – 30 in the brown, and 15 in the yellow. The brown areas contain a pigment that is also found in humans that is called melanin, while the yellow areas contain xanthopterin. The brown cuticle is also covered with astonishing brown grooves that split the light absorbed from the sun into diverging beams. While the brown splits the light, the yellow converts it into electricity.
The xanthopterin and grooves in the brown brands cuticle and pinhole depressions makes electricity from sun rays. Although it's not completely understood exactly how hornets use this electricity, one possibility is that they might harness the electricity to power enzymes in the yellow cuticle. Alternatively, this electricity also might help keep hornets at a comfortable temperature, including giving the hornets' wing muscles an extra jolt of energy. During the summer months, hornets are mostly active at noon, when the heat is high and ultraviolet radiation is at its strongest. This unusual behavior of being active afternoon made scientists curious because other insects are more active in the early part of the day. It now makes sense why they leave their nests when the sun hot, it is because of their ingenious adaptations to harvest sunlight.
7. Stargazer
Stargazers live at the bottom of deep, open waters. They are found mostly in lower Chesapeake Bay, but sometimes they travel to the upper Bay in autumn. They have a moderately speckled elongate, flattened body with a large head. They are well-adapted to life under the sand. Their pectoral fins act as shovels, which enables them to bury themselves in the sand in a matter of seconds. There are two different species stargazers, which is the Northern stargazer and the Southern stargazer. Both these species have a special talent of creating an electrical current from a specialized organ located behind the eyes. This organ can deliver an electric charge of up to 50 volts that stuns and confuses its prey and also ward off predators. They hunt by burying themselves in the sand with their eyes and mouths sticking out just enough to search for prey. Once they see something tasty swim by, they can quickly capture their prey or use their large mouths to create a vacuum to suck its prey. Their ability to deliver an electric shock is usually used for defense.
6. Knifefish
Knifefishes are fascinating aquarium specimens. Their bodies are long, tapered, and compressed, with a continually moving fin on their underside. They are found in two groups. The largest group is the gymnotiformes – the ones known as electric fishes. The other group of the knifefishes are members of the notopteridae family, which belong to the Orsteogrossiformes order. Unlike some electrical fishes that generate enough voltage to stun prey, the knifefish uses its electric field as a sixth sense – to navigate its surroundings, communicate and hunt for prey. Its electrical ability helps it to hunt because it can detect prey animals.
Electric knifeshes have tuberous electroreceptor organs specialized for detecting modulations of the high-frequency self-generated electric field. They also have ampullary organs specialized for detecting low-frequency electric field arising from external sources such as bioelectric fields generated by other aquatic organisms. Another third electrical organ is the mechanosensory lateral line system. All these three electrical organs can provide information that may aid the fish when hunting for prey at night or in muddy water. Knifefishes can also scan prey animals across their sensory array before intercepting it with the mouth.
5. Bees
Honeybees have many amazing and interesting facts about them. Another amazing ability of the "honeybee" was discovered recently, revealing that they have a special electrical ability that enables them to sense or detect other electrical signals made by plants. Flowers give out electrical signals to attract bees to their pollen, with their voltage changing consistently to warn others when their nectar is low. Differences in electrical charges allow flowers and bees to communicate. Plants emit weak electric fields and are usually charged negatively. Bees acquire a positive charge as they fly through the air, and they are also able to tell the differences between floral electric fields.
4. Asian Super ants
A species of Asian ants (Lasius neglectus) that was first seen in Budapest 20 years ago has an attraction to electricity. They are naturally drawn to electrical currents, but this attraction that they have to electricity is also fatal because they can cause blackouts and fires. Their compulsion to follow electricity is stronger than their need for food or drink. They were also recorded sighting in the UK in 2009, although they were spotted in Germany, Poland, Spain, and Hungary.
The Asian super-ant can form huge colonies with nests stretching over up to a hectare. They look just the same as the common garden ant, but there will be ten to a hundred times as many of them. It is still unclear exactly what do they do with electricity as they are drawn or attracted to electrical circuitries. Surely there must be important for them to be attracted to electricity just like other ant species that are attracted to food or drink.
3. The Electric Catfish
The Electric Catfish is another fish that has fascinating electrical abilities. They are nocturnal (night) animals because their most active hours are just after sunset. They live in shallow water, with a muddy and sandy bottom neighboring rocking areas. The catfish has an ability to create an electrical charge of up to 350 volts. It uses this voltage to stun or paralyze its prey and its attackers in order to avoid conflict and to keep it from getting injured. The electrical charge is produced by organs in the skin of the fish, and the fatty layers of flesh below the charge insulate the fish so it doesn't electrocute itself. It is safe to keep it as a pet because its electric charge cannot kill a human, but the shocks do sting. An adult catfish can severely injure its caretaker if not handled properly. Its electrical properties are enough to kill or wound just about any aquarium fish, that's why they cannot have any mates when kept in tanks. In the wild, the catfish can grow up to 39 inches (99cm) in length. Its body is one big electrical current, with the head serving as the negative pole and the tale as a positive pole. This species is also very sensitive to the earth's magnetic fields. In captivity, it responds to magnetic currents generated several hours before an impending earthquake.
2. Chickens
I know you might be surprised or wondering how is it that chickens have electrical abilities that you have never heard of. Chickens obviously don't have electric organs or electrical abilities built in their delicious bodies, but they are able to produce a source of electricity. Chicken's waste/manure can be used in generating power. The fact that the waste material digested in their intestines produces electricity, means that they do have an ability to create electricity. Chicken dung was first used to produce methane gas, but manufacturers turned to more advanced solutions by utilizing it to generate electricity. In 2008, the Dutch agriculture minister Gerda Verburg announced a groundbreaking development for the field as she unveiled the world's largest biomas power plant to run exclusively on poultry manure. They converted roughly 400,000 tons of chicken manure into energy annually, generating more than 270 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year. This power generation method is still being used even today.
1. Electric Eels
Electric Eels are famous freshwater predators that can generate an enormous electrical charge to stun prey and persuade other predators. Their bodies have electric organs with about 6000 specialized cells called electrolytes. These cells located in the tail of the fish are lined up like batteries in a flashlight. Each and every single cell generates only about 0.15 volts. In total, all those six thousand cells make one giant battery that can generate up to 600 volts of electric charge/shock.
The reason why I have put electric eels on the number one spot of this list is because there's no other animal that is able to generate powerful electrical currents like them. The electric eel has 50 times the shocking power of a car battery, and that is because a standard car battery has only 12 volts of electrical current. Its electrical charge is also 5 times the power of a standard US wall socket. In humans, multiple shocks from an electric eel can cause respiratory or heart-failure. However, the jolts can incapacitate the fish and crustaceans that are the electric eel prey. Some people have been known to drown in shallow water after a stunning jolt from an electric eel. Like other electrical fishes that I covered on this list, the electric eel also uses electricity for sensing prey. Their electrical ability also helps them to navigate in the water because they have poor eyesight. They have long, cylindrical bodies and flattened heads and are generally dark green or greyish on top with yellowish coloring underneath. In size, electric eels can reach six feet (2 metres) in length and weigh nearly 12 pounds (20 kg). The shock of an electric eel has also been known to knock a horse off its feet.
