Tokyo Aquarium Made ‘Emergency Plea’ for People to FaceTime Its Eels Because They Were Getting Too Shy

By Syakir Roslan  •  06 May 2020 in News

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Eels might not be the first animal that one thinks of in a conversation about cute animals. Regardless of how you feel about eels, you probably wouldn’t have guessed that those snake-like fish confidently standing upright in the picture above were actually pretty shy creatures.

According to Science Alert, keepers at the Sumida Aquarium in Tokyo were asking people to FaceTime with their garden eels so they don’t become too shy when visitors come to see them. In a series of videos posted onto social media, the eels were seen hiding in their burrows whenever people tried to approach them, prompting the keepers to seek the public’s help.

Five tablets were placed along the eels’ tank which allowed callers to have a lovely five-minute chat with these little critters from May 3-5 around 10am to 2pm, Tokyo local time. Due to the Coronavirus, the aquarium has been closed since March 1 resulting in the lack of visitors as of late.

Despite their cautious nature, keepers noted that the eels had previously grown accustomed to human visitors which unfortunately changed since the aquarium’s closure. It’s important for these eels to be seen so that keepers can monitor their health and breeding, which has proven difficult when they burrow in the sand to hide.

Thankfully for the Sumida Aquarium, it seems that their little experiment has helped the timid eels gain back their confidence.

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