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  • 2019-11-05 (xsd:date)
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  • Can Wolf Eel Bite and Poison You After It's Been Decapitated? (en)
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  • In October 2019, an animated GIF purportedly showing the decapitated head of a wolf eel biting down on a can of Coca-Cola was shared to the WTF section of Reddit under the title the head of a Wolf Eel can still bite and poison you after it’s been decapitated: This is a genuine piece of footage. However, the title of this post contains at least one error: The wolf eel is not poisonous or venomous. Furthermore, the wolf eel isn't an actual eel. The wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) is a species of wolffish that lives in the North Pacific Ocean. The Seattle Aquarium explains: The above-displayed GIF comes from a longer video that was posted to YouTube in January 2019. The original video appears to have been taken aboard a commercial fishing ship. Filmmaker Rúni Djurhuus titled the footage Catfish vs. Coke, but the marine species in the video is labeled a wolf eel and a catfish wolf eel in the description: One reason for the confusion may relate to this fish's nickname, the ocean catfish. We compared stills from the GIF with photographs and believe that the marine creature featured in this video is indeed a wolf eel. We've reached out to the Marine Conservation Institute to confirm and will update this article when more information becomes available. The original video also provides some insight into how and why this decapitated fish head bit down on a can of Coca-Cola. While some viewers hypothesized that this fish head was still alive when this video was filmed, it's likely that the footage shows an involuntary muscle reflex. The original video shows that this fish was decapitated just before a Coke can was pushed into its jaws. It's likely that the fish's nerve endings were still functioning, and that pressure near its jaw triggered a muscle spasm. In June 2018, after a man in Texas was bitten by a decapitated rattlesnake head, National Geographic and Science Alert penned articles explaining the phenomena: The wolf eel may be scary looking and may have a powerful bite, but these fish aren't aggressive. In fact, these friendly fish are a favorite among scuba divers. The eel-like fish can grow up to 8 feet in length and subsists on a diet of sea urchins, mussels, and clams, which it can eat thanks to its powerful jaws: (en)
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