European eel

Other English names for the species are Eel, Snig eel, Common eel, Broad-nosed eel and Sharp-nosed eel. The scientific name Anguilla anguilla carries the authority (Linnaeus, 1758).

Weight

Not recorded

Length

45 cm – 65 cmsrc for Length

Lifespan

15 years – 20 yearssrc for Lifespan

Main food

arthropods, vertebratessrc for Main food

Habitat

marine, riverinesrc for Habitat

Young per litter or clutch

Not recorded

Reproduction

Eggssrc for Reproduction

Migration

Migratorysrc for Migration

Conservation status

Critically Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

The European eel is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.

1. LCLeast Concern
2. NTNear Threatened
3. VUVulnerable
4. ENEndangered
5. CRCritically Endangered
6. EWExtinct in the Wild
7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Critically Endangered species. What the categories mean.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classTeleostei
4. orderAnguilliformes
5. familyAnguillidae
6. genusAnguilla
7. SpeciesAnguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms Angill angill, Anguilla acutirostris, Anguilla aegyptiaca, Anguilla altirostris, Anguilla anacamptoentera, Anguilla ancidda, Anguilla anguilla oxycephala, Anguilla anguilla var. macrocephala, Anguilla anguilla var. mucrocephala, Anguilla anguilla var. ornithorhyncha, Anguilla anguillai, Anguilla anguillia, Anguilla bibroni, Anguilla brevirostris, Anguilla callensis, Anguilla canariensis, Anguilla capitone, Anguilla cloacina, Anguilla cuvieri, Anguilla eurystoma, Anguilla fluviatilis, Anguilla fluviatilis, Anguilla fluviatilis, Anguilla hibernica, Anguilla kieneri, Anguilla latirostris, Anguilla linnei, Anguilla marginata, Anguilla marina, Anguilla marina, Anguilla mediorostris, Anguilla melanochir, Anguilla microptera, Anguilla migratoria, Anguilla morena, Anguilla nilotica, Anguilla nilotica, Anguilla oblongirostris, Anguilla orthoentera, Anguilla platycephala, Anguilla platyrhynchus, Anguilla savignyi, Anguilla septembrina, Anguilla vulgaris, Anguilla vulgaris, Anguilla vulgaris fluviatilis, Anguilla vulgaris lacustus, Anguilla vulgaris macrocephala, Anguilla vulgaris marina, Anguilla vulgaris ornithorhincha, Anguilla vulgaris platyura, Leptocephalus brevirostris, Muraena anguilla, Muraena anguilla anguillechien, Muraena anguilla guiseau, Muraena anguilla maculata, Muraena anguilla marina, Muraena anguilla var. acerine, Muraena oxyrhina, Muraena platyrhina

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistITISTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List

CompareEuropean eel vs Japanese eelEuropean eel vs Boston eelEuropean eel vs Marbled eelEuropean eel vs Mottled eel

• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• Environment Agency freshwater fish surveys (National Fish Populations Database) · OGL v3.0 · 2026-11-14
  Environment Agency. Freshwater fish surveys (NFPD). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Environment Agency copyright and/or database right. https://environment.data.gov.uk/ecology/explorer/
• Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI): interpreted data products · CC0 1.0 · 0.11
  Poelen, J.H., Simons, J.D. & Mungall, C.J. (2014) Global Biotic Interactions: an open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics 24: 148–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2014.08.005. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22691479, with each record's original reference.
• Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-11-13
  Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group.
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{european_eel_2026,
  title = {European eel (Anguilla anguilla)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/european-eel},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}