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.'"

Comments

Link went mising - here it is

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The link went missing - here it is

Re:Link went mising - here it is

[SternisheFan]

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 ).

Re:Link went mising - here it is

[v1]

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)

Temporarily stranded?

[wonkey_monkey]

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...

Re:Temporarily stranded?

[LourensV]

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 :-).

Re:Temporarily stranded?

[Palamos]

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.

Re:Temporarily stranded?

[gmhowell]

...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?

Re:Sample Video ... catfish catching pigeons

[tobiasly]

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

It's a catfish, after all...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

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.)