Don's Eel Lecture

Don's Eel Lecture

Kia Ora,
A couple of days ago, Don, who is an eel scientist, came to talk to the Batten team because we are learning about eels. Here is everything that we learnt:

• Eels can swim backwards;

• Australian long fins have spots;

• There are 19 species of eels worldwide;       

• They have an amazing sense of smell;

• Eels teeth face backwards;

• Glass eels are tiny;

• Eels spin if they can't bite a chunk out of their prey;

• Eels will eat ducklings but won't go adult ducks; 

• Eels will eat mice when they are swimming;

• Eels revolve from other fish;

• Their ear bones are called Othalas;

• You can tell the age of the eel by how many rings are in their Othalas;

• Males grow to 75cm, anything bigger is a female;

• Eels that are breeding are silver;

• Your average female will lay 7-20 million eggs, while your unusually big females lay 5-80 million eggs;

• Eels have a metamorphosis;

• Short fins will eat a crab, you can tell by their bum because it makes their bum red;

•  Eels eat their food whole.

As you can see, Don was very experienced in his work with Eels. Thank you Don for teaching us all of the above.
Adele