Elvira is a New Zealand native longfin eel (tuna, in Maori). She is 20 years old or more because she is a metre long - a very large eel I began feeding from a stick some months back & who has taught herself to beg.

She has a large mouth full of very small, very sharp teeth. Although she seems to be delightful I would never put my hand in the water near her.

Her blue eyes don't see well and I think mainly let her know which way is up from the light at the surface of the stream she lives in. She is one of many eels in this stream, a regular, often daily visitor & has learned to come to my Eel Spot, a deep part, to be fed, when I flick some bloody water into the stream.

After a few minutes, if in the vicinity, she will power up, splashing, through shallow rapids to the Eel Spot, where she will stretch up vertically, put her head out, and, holding position with her undulating tail, open her mouth to beg.