Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 16, 2025

Long-term Behavioral Tracking of Freely Swimming Weakly Electric Fish
Published on: March 6, 2014
Two Clinical Records of Human Injuries with a Death caused by Electric Eels Electrophorus spp. Gill, 1864
Vidal Haddad Júnior1, Flávio César Thadeo de Lima2, William Gareth Richard Crampton3
1Universidade Estadual Paulista, Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu, Departamento de Dermatologia e Infectologia, Botucatu, SP, Brasil.
Abstract:
Electrical eels, or poraqués or temblones (Electrophorus spp. Gill, 1864), are highly feared animals in the Amazon, mainly because of their electric discharge of up to 860 volts. We report two cases of human injuries caused by electric eels, one of which was fatal. The shocks caused muscle rigidity, and the victim likely drowned because of muscle contracture. Strong electric shocks increase the levels of cardiac enzymes in the blood, as observed with the elevation of total creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and creatine phosphokinase myocardial band (CPK-MB) in surviving victims, which is potentially indicative of injuries caused by poraqués.

