Eel Research: C. David de Santana in the field

Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History fish research associate C. David de Santana studying electric eels in the field.

De Santana is the senior author of a new paper describing how electric eels hunt together in groups. The findings are reported in the Jan. 14 issue of the journal Ecology and Evolution. The results overturn the idea that these serpentine fish are exclusively solitary predators and open the door to new questions about how these little-understood fish live.

With the Amazon under threat from deforestation, fire and climate change, de Santana said there is a profound sense of urgency to accelerate biodiversity assessment in the region. “Electric eels aren’t in immediate danger, but their habitats and ecosystems are under immense pressure. This paper is an example of how much we still don’t know, how many organisms whose life histories we don’t yet understand.”