European eel
Scientific name: Anguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758)
Overview
The European eel is a species of eel. Their life history was a mystery for thousands of years, and mating in the wild has not yet been observed. The five stages of their development were originally thought to be different species. They are critically endangered due to hydroelectric dams, overfishing by fisheries on coasts for human consumption, and parasites.
From the Wikipedia article “European eel”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Conservation status
Critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, as recorded on Wikidata, citing The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2.
Where it lives
Common names
Also known in English as eel.
Names in other languages (11)
- Arabic
- أنقليس أوروبي
- Chinese
- 欧洲鳗鲡
- French
- anguille, anguille d'Europe, civelle
- German
- Aal, Europäischer Aal, Flussaal
- Indonesian
- Sidat eropa
- Japanese
- ヨーロッパウナギ
- Persian
- مارماهی اروپایی
- Portuguese
- eiró, enguia
- Russian
- ugor', речной угорь, угорь речной, Угорь речной европейский
- Spanish
- anguila, anguila europea
- Turkish
- tatlisu yilan baligi, yilan baligi
Related animals
Sources
-
Catalogue of Life — scientific name, classification, common names.
Version 2026-09-11, CC BY 4.0.
This species in the Catalogue of Life.
Citation
Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Aedo, C., Aescht, E., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (Version 2026-09-11). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgz5n Source database: FishBase.
- GBIF — species page and recorded occurrences.
- Wikidata — conservation status, names in other languages. Q26387, CC0 1.0.
- Wikipedia — overview, from the article “European eel”, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photo — mr_capgras, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
- Range map — Reaperman, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons. File page.
Last updated: 4 October 2026