This Eel Can Consume Up to 10 Times Its Body Weight Thanks to This One Fascinating Feature

Eels are famous for their slithery bodies that can snake through what seems like any body of water. Gulper eels are very rarely seen by humans, but still shock researchers everytime they make an appearance. Check out this video below by EVNautilus of a gulper eel ballooning its jaw into a massive bubble!

Gulper Eel Jaws

Gulper eels get their name for pretty obvious reasons: their jaws. These eels use their extremely flexible and malleable jaws to consume — or gulp — their prey. While each gulper eel’s size is different, it is thought that they can expand their jaws so large that they can consume up to 10 times their own body weight!

Even with a large jaw that can seemingly swallow anything, gulper eels are pretty bad hunters. With smaller teeth that on their own wouldn’t likely capture much in the way of food, the large jaw allows them to scoop up other fish or groups of small shrimp. Gulper eels also lack fins and scales that allow for movement underwater. This, plus small eyes that make it hard to see, makes it difficult for gulper eels to hunt.

Because of this, gulper eels have a pinkish-red bioluminescent glow on the back of their tails to lure fish to their mouth to be caught. Meanwhile, their black coloring allows them to blend into deeper waters.

Why Does It Morph Into Shapes?

The video above shows a gulper eel’s balloon-like jaw wavering and morphing into shapes. While it’s known that the advantage of this kind of jaw is perfect for eating large prey, what might it be doing in this video? According to an interview with Yi-Kai Tea, a Chadwick Biodiversity Fellow at the Australian Museum in Sydney, states that the reason for the morphing in the video is unknown. This specific kind of behavior isn’t widely understood, given its randomness, but it is theorized that the gulper eel is ballooning its jaws to intimidate things interpreted as threats. As seen in many other animal and aquatic species, when faced with danger, trying to appear bigger is a common tactic in deterring any potential predators.

How Gulper Eels Balloon Their Jaws

Gulper eels’ ballooning ability is all thanks to their stretchy skin. The elastic skin is found in both its jaw and stomach, allowing for the consumption of larger prey. The skin is stretchy thanks to a protein called elastin. As humans get older, we lose elastin and have looser skin. While this may seem undesirable for humans, it’s ideal for gulper eels as high levels of elastin are what give these creatures their iconic ballooning ability.