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.'"

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Link went mising - here it is

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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 ).

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: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.)