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Dodo Shows
12 Animals Who Actually Use
Electricity
By Aaron Rodriques
Published on 1/25/2015 at 9:32 AM

FAITH = RESTORED

Rescued Animals Melt Into

This Woman's Arms When
She Sings To Them

<P> FLICKR/KEN BONDY </P>

Get charged up to meet critters who can generate and detect electricity. You
may be - wait for it - shocked!

1. Echidnas
(Flickr/Leo)

These adorable egg-laying mammals use structures called electroreceptors in

their snouts for a good cause: to find food. They can pick up on the electrical
impulses given off by prey like insects and worms.

(Flickr/Eddy)

In addition to laying eggs, having a bill and being equipped with venomous
spines, the wonderfully unique platypus can also detect electricity. Like his close
relative the echidna, the platypus also has electroreceptors on his snout that
help detect electric impulses from potential meals. This ability serves the
platypus well, as he often hunts in deep water where prey may not be easy to
see.

3. Stargazers
(Flickr/Mark Harris)

These little-known spiny fish have peepers that pack a punch. The stargazer has
modified eye muscles that give off an electric current - essentially shocking and
immobilizing his prey. It helps fend off predators too.

4. Bees
(Flickr/Stavros Markopoulos)

A flower's bright petals and fragrance aren't the only things that attract bees.
Flowers often experience a change in electric charge after they've been visited,
so by sensing electric fields, bees can decide whether a flower is worth
investigating (or if someone got there before them).

5. Electric rays
(Flickr/Froschmann)

Electric rays have kidney-shaped organs capable of generating electric shocks.

These fish use electricity to zap predators and catch prey. These rays can
actually control the intensity of their electric shocks, sending out relatively low
doses to serve as a warning to curious predators and high doses to stun their
lunch.

6. Geckos
(Flickr/Michael Sale)

Have you ever wondered how geckos are able to climb smooth surfaces? The
gecko's Spider-Man abilities are due in part to the electrostatic forces on the
gecko's toe pads. The difference in charge between his feet and the surface he's
climbing help the little guy stay anchored to the wall.

7. Elephant nose fish

(Flickr/Joachim S. Müller)

Despite his name, the elephant nose fish does not have a prehensile trunk.
Rather, that protrusion is a long chin, which the fish uses to detect the electrical
impulses of prey. These fish are so skilled in their electroreception that they can
find food even when it's pitch-dark.

8. Oriental hornets
(Flickr/Stavros Markopoulos)

He may sound like he's straight out of a comic book, but the Oriental hornet
indeed gets his electric superpowers from the sun. This incredible insect has
specialized yellow tissues that can absorb sunlight, as well as brown tissues that
generate electricity. The hornet uses this electricity as a power source - and is
the only known animal that can convert sunlight into energy. Scientists made
their surprising discovery after noticing that the Oriental hornet was active
during times when the sun was most intense - an unusual trait for his kind.

9. Spiders
(Flickr/dotun55)

Spiders coat their web with a special kind of glue that's attracted to charged
particles (such as flying insects). The attraction is so strong that these lifeless
webs will actually move forward to stick to flying prey. These webs are also
attracted to airborne pollutants, meaning that spiders help make the air cleaner
in addition to eradicating house pests.

10. Sharks
(Flickr/Ken Bondy)

Sharks have specialized receptors on their snouts called ampullae of Lorenzini.

These receptors help the shark detect electric fields given off by potential
meals. This can come in handy in the deep blue sea, where prey may be far away
or camouflaging themselves.

11. Guiana dolphins

(a)

(b)

(royalsocietypublishing.org/Nicole U. Czech-Damal)

Guiana dolphins may seem like simple, playful creatures, but when you look into
their past, things get pretty hairy - literally. That's because these dolphins are
born with whiskers on their snouts! These whiskers fall off eventually, but the pits
that these whiskers were once anchored to (called vibrissal crypts) are used to
sense the electric fields emitted by prey. Like the shark, the receptors in a
Guiana dolphin's snout also have a kind of gel that allows him to detect the
presence of possible food. Each crypt is surrounded by blood vessels and
connected to the trigeminal nerve, a special nerve that carries sensory
information to the dolphin's brain.

12. Electric eels

(Flickr/Travis)

A list of animals that use electricity would not be complete without electric eel.
These magnificent creatures inhabit ponds and streams in the Amazon and
Orinoco basins of South America, but their name is misleading; electric eels are
not eels at all, and are more closely related to catfish. Electric eels have
electrogenic cells that they use to stun prey, defend against predators and even
communicate with other electric eels. With a strong enough shock to cause
heart failure after repeated jolts, it wouldn't be such a good idea to approach this
living lightning rod. In fact, it would be eel-advised.

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