There's an ingenious predator lurking in the South American continent.

Imagine we're there deep in the Amazonian rainforest.

Above us is a vast canopy of overlapping branches and leaves through which the sunlight

strains the penetrates with its glistening rays.

All around us are the buzzing, chirping, howling sounds of the forest.

Let's play the role of a small fish, swimming along a slow-moving stream that feeds into

the mighty Amazon river.

There's almost no visibility in the murky water which is clogged with decaying vegetation,

but it's okay because we have the ability to move with speed.

Weaving our way around objects, our senses are tingling, there's danger nearby, and then

suddenly it happens ZAP!

Within the blink of an eye, in fact faster than that, and near two thousandth of a second,

we have been stunned how muscles twitch and contract uncontrollably, and then suddenly

we're powerless and unable to escape.

But before we've even had a chance to regain our senses, we're in the dark cavern of a

very large mouth.

We have become prey to an electric eel.

For me, the electric eel is one of the most intriguing and powerful predators to inhabit

the great river basins of South America.

This is an animal with an incredible superpower, the ability to create electricity within

its own body, capable of delivering the high-voltage jolt that just immobilized our small fish.

The electric eel uses its power to hunt not only for fish, but also amphibians, birds,

...