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Catfish Strands Itself To Kill Pigeons

Posted by samzenpus on from the step-away-from-the-water dept.

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.'"

22 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Sample Video ... catfish catching pigeons by Press2ToContinue · · Score: 2

    Here's catfish catching pigeons

    Makes me happy there are catfish in the world.

    --
    Sent from my ENIAC
    1. Re:Sample Video ... catfish catching pigeons by tobiasly · · Score: 5, Funny

      Amen!! Forget sharks, I want a goddamn pigeon-eating catfish with a laser on its head!

  2. Link went mising - here it is by Press2ToContinue · · Score: 5, Informative

    The link went missing - here it is

    --
    Sent from my ENIAC
    1. Re:Link went mising - here it is by SternisheFan · · Score: 5, Informative

      Story Submitter here: I actually linked to this Discover.com version ( http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/12/05/the-catfish-that-strands-itself-to-kill-pigeons/#.UMJpTYWgQVn ).

    2. Re:Link went mising - here it is by v1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That video wasn't very clear. It didn't look like the catfish really "beached" itself, it was more of a lunge from the water's edge. When I hear "beached" I'm thinking mostly or completely out of the water like you see killer whales going up on shore and taking sea lions and seals off the dry beach. These birds were practically wading in the shallows.

      Also, it looked like every time they got a pigeon, it managed to get free within a few seconds and get back up on shore?

      I prefer this video, a snapper snagging a pigeon: Snapping turtle eats bird Much clearer outcome. (those snappers have an insane strike speed, as well as a very unexpectedly long range)

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    3. Re:Link went mising - here it is by durrr · · Score: 3, Interesting

      One link mentioned a 28% kill rate. While not very impressive it's a free meal every 3rd time.

    4. Re:Link went mising - here it is by icebike · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When I see the word "strands", both in the linked story and the summary, I assume a terminal event. If the fish can get back in the water under its own power at will, it certainly does not amount to a stranding. Beached is more appropriate, but even it suggests something of an irreversible predicament.

      Neither is exactly true, since there is no mention of fish deaths. The fish have the ability to get back in the water.

      A poor choice of words to add sensationalism. Sort of akin to calling every human venture into the water a drowning.

      Further, fish going ashore for other reasons is not that rare. Many fish spawn ashore including the Grunion. Dolphins chase fish ashore too. Which is interesting because two species are going ashore for two different reasons, one to escape, one to eat.
      .

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  3. Temporarily stranded? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In the process, they temporarily strand themselves on land for a few seconds.

    Not really stranding themselves, then, eh?

    Fish eating birds though... seems wrong, somehow...

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Temporarily stranded? by ldcroberts · · Score: 2

      yeah it's usually the birds temporarily drowning themselves to catch fish

    2. Re:Temporarily stranded? by LourensV · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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 :-).

    3. Re:Temporarily stranded? by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 2

      In the process, they temporarily strand themselves on land for a few seconds.

      Not really stranding themselves, then, eh?

      I was thinking the same thing. Many catfish can stay out of water for long periods of time.

      Fish eating birds though... seems wrong, somehow...

      I've seen northern pike eat ducks a few times and even a small dog once.

    4. Re:Temporarily stranded? by Palamos · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    5. Re:Temporarily stranded? by CanadianRealist · · Score: 2

      I'd say the cat leaping into the air is not quite at the same level. The cat is in no danger of suffocating while up in the air. The catfish and and the bird are both going into a domain where they cannot "breathe".

    6. Re:Temporarily stranded? by Sulphur · · Score: 2

      I've seen the sterotypical scene of a momma duck and her babies floating out along behind her, touring the pond in the shallows....

      And then a big swirl, maybe a splash, and there is one less duckling in the parade...

      Only difference is these catfish are going where they don't really belong to do it. I'm assuming that the same species in other locations doesn't display the same behavior on a fairly regular basis...

      Birds gotta swim and fish gotta fly.

    7. Re:Temporarily stranded? by gmhowell · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...and anything that gets rid of pigeons is a good thing :-).

      But then we might run into a shortage of carrier pigeons.

      Then how will I implement my company's RFC1149 compliant network?

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  4. Firefly by SJHillman · · Score: 2

    Replace river Tarn with River Tam (which looks almost identical in many fonts) and you get a bonus Firefly episode centering around River wandering through a city destroying birds.

  5. It's a catfish, after all... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Gee, it's a CATfish. What did you expect? Had it been a toadfish, it would have been catching flies. (A French boarfish would probably take a stroll into the nearest forest to dig for some acorns.)

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  6. why the blog link? by Goldsmith · · Score: 2

    Why are linking to something on yahoo when this was published in an open access journal?

    Press releases for science are bad for everyone.

    http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0050840

  7. fish eat birds....yawwn by turkeydance · · Score: 2

    bass eat ducklings. bluefish eat seagulls. sharks eat whatever.

  8. Cats again! by mynameiskhan · · Score: 2

    Cats in whatever form have never been up to anything good ever. They are killing the one bird, people around the world love because they poop on the heads of politicians' statues.

  9. They'll adapt to eat people too by manwargi · · Score: 2

    There are reports of catfish attacking humans as well. From the sound of things, they'll eat anything they're big enough to attempt to eat.

  10. Re:The article forgot to mention... humans by vivtho · · Score: 2

    WRT catfish eating humans .... It's already happened ... Kali River goonch attacks