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Last week , a human in Sweden claimed that his favourite , a fresh water male eel name Åle , fail after having hold out for 155 year in a backyard well . But was Åle really the old eel to have ever lived or the star of a Pisces fib ?
Eel experts are n’t certain . In the wild , eel snuff it after spawning , or reproducing , said William O’Connor , a life scientist and eel expert with Ecofact Environmental Consultants Ltd. in Ireland .
Ale the eel was examined by scientists on several occasions throughout his lifetime.
" Typically , males would be wait to live up to 15 years , and females up to 20 years , but it is cognise that they can hold out longer than this , and there is much variation , " O’Connor told Live Science in an email . [ See Photos of the World ’s Freakiest - Looking Pisces ]
Because Åle the eel neverleft his home to multiply , it ’s potential that he would have dwell longer than the standard 15 days , O’Connor said . Another eel , mention Pute , lived for 85 years in a Swedish aquarium , according to O’Connor . There is also record of an eel held in a well in Denmark for 55 years , he said .
Why would an eel hide out in a well for so long ? plain , before homeowners had water filtration systems , they would place hungry eels into their wells to clean the water of its insect , O’Connor noted . " However , I do n’t know how widespread this was , " he say .
Even for an eel sealed off in a well , living for 155 years is something that O’Connor called " quite a reaching . "
" It is an interesting story , and I am always delighted when eels are in the news , even though I am a petty piece skeptical that this eel was really this former , " he suppose .
But the world will know before long enough whether Åle the eel really lived for more than a century and a one-half . Tomas Kjellman , whose family has owned the well where Åle resided since 1962,told Swedish news program website The Localthat Åle ’s remains have been frozen and will soon be transported to the Swedish University of Agricultural Science ’s Institute of Freshwater Research . expert there should be able to find out the eel ’s dependable years .
By examining the eel’sear Harlan F. Stone — hard , bonelike structures within the pinna duct — scientist should be capable to determine Åle ’s geezerhood , accord to Håkan Wickström , a scientist with the Institute of Freshwater Research in Stockholm . Much like determining the eld of a tree , scientists can count the " rings " of the ear Harlan F. Stone to determine the age of the fish , Wickström tell Live Science in an electronic mail .
Wickström grant that examining these tiny fish part is the only way to cognise for certain how onetime Åle really was when he died . However , he also said that he does n’t think it ’s inconceivable for a European eel to inhabit to be 155 .
" In another eel coinage , the large foresighted - fin eel in New Zealand , there are individuals more than 100 year in age in raw pee , " Wickström say . " So , 155 years is at least theoretically potential in a well with no marauder , cool temperature and sufficient intellectual nourishment . "
Recently listed as critically menace , European eels ( Anguilla anguilla)have slowly go away from Europe ’s waterways over the past 30 year , according to O’Connor . However , these creatures have made a comeback late , with more baby eel change state up in European rivers , but scientist are n’t exactly sure why that is , O’Connor said .
In fact , much of an eel ’s life cycle is shroud in mystery , O’Connor said . If Åle ’s fib twist out to be lawful , the wizened previous eel could help life scientist gain a better intellect of what he call " fascinating and vulnerable creatures . "
