[rjtobin]

Although I think this is wonderful, I wonder is there a non-public outreach reason for not just showing pre-recorded videos of people?

I’m also curious about how well these eels can perceive screens. Some animals seem to be able to process things on a screen while others seem to totally ignore it. Is there some biological difference here, maybe the frequencies of light emitted by a TV/monitor being designed for human eyes?

[capableweb]

> Some animals seem to be able to process things on a screen while others seem to totally ignore it

In my experience, it's more about the particular individual of animal rather than broadly "all eels can see screens", at least that's what I experience with my dogs. One of them ignore screens and seemingly can't see / don't want to see what's on the screen, even if prompted to look at it. The other one watches TV with me, as soon as I'm watching something. And if there is something appearing on the screen resembling an animal, she tries to scare them away with barks. Humans on TV is fine, and she follows them, but birds, dogs or any other animal is an enemy according to her. Even animated animals are recognized as animals for her, unless they are too abstract.

Watching BoJack Horseman was an interesting experience, to see where she would react vs not. Seems most animals/humans in that show are fine, unless they are really behaving like animals, then it's not fine.

[t0mas88]

My younger cat also completely ignores televisions and the mirror, just doesn't look at it any longer than a regular wall. The older one reacts to the "cat in the mirror" and also watches TV. Even goes as far as to go look at the other side of the wall that the TV is on if she sees something on TV she wants to hunt/eat.

[tsimionescu]

Some animals perceive movement much more quickly than we do, so standard 24 or 30 FPS video appears like a slideshow to them (apparently pigeons fit this category, I have no idea which animals it was tested for).

For binocularity, I'm not as sure, but it may be that with different eye setups, perspective has different rules to appear realistic.

There is also the simple fact that images on a screen don't appear realistic to us either, we just choose to take interest in them because we understand what they are meant to represent.

[TheChaplain]

Sure it could be done, but this is also a PR-event to advertise for the Aquarium and a way to show off the eels to people.

At least it worked on me, I spent 2h digging through wikipedia and Youtube about Garden Eels.

[pvaldes]

Is part of the fauna of Europe and US. You can find native Garden Eels in tropical but also temperate areas. Cool creatures. I had seen them in the wild and it was a strange experience. Like seeing a lawn growing backwards.

There are more cheap and simple solutions than video-chat (figures printed on cardboard and cut for example), so we can safely assume that eel eye reaction to screen flickering is not the real point here.

[kranner]

FWIW this particular type of eel supposedly has excellent eyesight (if I have the right eel).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteroconger

[mistersquid]

> is there a non-public outreach reason for not just showing pre-recorded videos of people?

The OP delights and your question made me think about how some among the unwashed masses of Internet users will send video to the eels that may harm and/or frighten them.