Electric Eels are found in the murky rivers, swamps, and floodplains of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in South America. These freshwater habitats are warm and low in oxygen, which is why electric eels have adapted to breathe air—they actually surface every few minutes to gulp it in! They prefer calm, muddy waters where they can easily ambush prey and hide from larger predators. Because visibility is low in their environment, they use low-voltage electric pulses to navigate, communicate, and sense what’s around them—like living sonar!
