Sashimi-Swallowing Moray Eels Become First Fish Documented Feeding On Land Without Water
Rumor has it, they wash down their sushi with some fava beans and a nice chianti. Image credit: Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock.com
If someone was trying to lure you out of bed on the coldest and rainiest of rainy days, what’s the number one treat that might inspire you to leave your comfort zone? A team of researchers recently discovered that to lure snowflake moray eels from not just their comfort zone, but also out the place they can breathe, it takes sashimi. Well played, morays.
The scientists-turned-animal-trainers were trying to encourage the eel species Echidna nebulosa out of the water and onto a platform so that they could observe how or if these fish could consume solid food out of water. Morays have been documented scooting out of the water to catch crabs, but exactly what they did with them once caught was something of a mystery.
The new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, trained the snowflake morays to undulate their way onto land to receive some raw fish. Here, they were looking to uncover the mechanism through which a moray might be able to consume food in the absence of water, and thanks to their unique morphology it turned out to be quite the show.
