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Catfish Strands Itself To Kill Pigeons
SternisheFan writes "In Southwestern France, a group of fish have learned how to kill birds. As the River Tarn winds through the city of Albi, it contains a small gravel island where pigeons gather to clean and bathe. And patrolling the island are European catfish—1 to 1.5 meters long, and the largest freshwater fish on the continent. These particular catfish have taken to lunging out of the water, grabbing a pigeon, and then wriggling back into the water to swallow their prey. In the process, they temporarily strand themselves on land for a few seconds. Other aquatic hunters strand themselves in a similar way, including bottlenose dolphins from South Carolina, which drive small fish onto beaches, and Argentinian killer whales, which swim onto beaches to snag resting sealions. The behavior of the Tarn catfishes is so similar that Julien Cucherousset from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse describes them as 'freshwater killer whales.'"
I'd say this is like a cat leaping into the air to catch a bird, or an Osprey diving down into the water to catch a fish. Seems like many species happily leave their domain temporarily if there's food to be had. Still, interesting that these fish have picked up the idea (maybe it's the "cat" in their name?), and anything that gets rid of pigeons is a good thing :-).
It's wrong to say that the catfish do not belong on land, they are known to cross land to move from pond to pond as they dry up and there is some evidence that they migrate, at least once in their lifetime. They usually leave ponds at night when it's more humid so it's not a well known phenomenon. Nonetheless, this is very interesting behaviour.