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First Recorded Observation of Freshwater Fish Preying On Birds In Flight
ananyo writes "The waters of the African lake seem calm and peaceful. A few migrant swallows flit near the surface. Suddenly, leaping from the water, a fish grabs one of the famously speedy birds straight out of the air. 'The whole action of jumping and catching the swallow in flight happens so incredibly quickly that after we first saw it, it took all of us a while to really fully comprehend what we had just seen,' says Nico Smit, director of the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa. After the images did sink in, he adds, 'the first reaction was one of pure joy, because we realized that we were spectators to something really incredible and unique.' Rumours of such behaviour by the African tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus), which has been reported as reaching one metre in length, have circulated since the 1940s. But this is the first confirmed record of a freshwater fish preying on birds in flight, the team reports in the Journal of Fish Biology (PDF)."
I've been using the wrong bait all these years.
perhaps if the swallow had been unladen, it would have escaped
A King has to know these things
I like how their has been reports of this since the 1940's but now they just confirmed it so it's true. it just shows how arrogant and ridicilous fucking academics can be. If they bserved over 20 strikes while they were doing their research that just shows how good academics are at refuting obvious local knowledge. Im sure people who live around this lake took this as plain fact ever since.. their has been people living around lakes with tigerfish. It really takes some kind of hilarious close mindedness for the "scientific world" to not acknowledge that tiger fish hunt birds up untill 2014.
European, I guess, not African... guess those coconuts ARE heavy for a swallow, forcing them to fly close to the water!
The video quality is similar to those videos where some guy catches a yeti or more similar the Loch Ness Monster 'on video' - even when preconditioned to look for a particular occurrence, and in this case with a large arrow point at a particular spot, it's not possible to determine if the thing actually happened as described.
Look at this bird? Uhh, it look like a fish to me.
Upon further re-examination (sic), it could indeed by a fish eating a bird - or a bird-fish shape-shifter :S
Requiem for the American Dream
This is just a scaled up version of what fish do to insects all the time and the likes of flies are very quick. It is a little unusual to see it, but it's not really that spectacular.
See also: Shark eats gull.
Leaping shark catches seal.
The article (sorry, TFA) says they witnessed twenty such catches per day. Yet the only video they captured was the one linked?
[Strokes chin skeptically...]
Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
Was the swallow carrying a coconut?
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
I was too busy frantically reaching for the mute button to silence your horribly loud banjo music.
It is a basic rule of Quantum Mechanics.
You're correct, the first rule of Quantum Mechanics, of course, being "never get involved in a land war in Asia".
still waiting for a first post :/
factor 966971: 966971
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I16_8l0yS-g
It is joyous to see another animal killing another animal and to see blood? Ok, whatever floats your boat. I would not be joyus seeing a lion hunting a deer. No way.
I find it impressive for several reasons: the bird is moving fast, the fish is moving fast, and the refraction caused by the (moving)water/air boundary has to be accommodated by a fish with a brain the size of a politician's. This is so difficult, in fact, that I find it amazing the fish had ever developed this capability.
I remember the oudtoor mags running photos of a bass snagging a small bird in the '70s. Maybe it's a first in Africa or something, but it's old news on this continent.
I've personally seen a bass come out of the water to grab a spinnerbait while it's still in the air.
You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
I've seen a Large mouth Bass catch a swallow in flight. It was only once... but we've often found them in their stomachs... as well as squirrels, chipmunks, once we found a dudes wallet (I have no idea why it'd eat that) My uncle. who's been a bass fisherman for 50yrs. has a favorite line "If Bass got as big as sharks I'd never go in the water"
You can learn more about the African tigerfish on the Encyclopedia of Life: http://eol.org/pages/206410/details
Twenda Learning: Educational Apps that Engage.
If you wait too long, nothing will happen. It is a basic rule of living in your parent's basement.
I take it you've never done nature photography in the wild of a unusual short duration event that's unpredictable in both occurrence and location? I have, and I'm impressed that they caught even one. (Doubly so since they weren't professional videographers.) Don't let what you see on TV lull you into a false sense of how easy it is.
Nature photography in the wild is, IMO, one of the hardest and most challenging of all photographic disciplines.
I thought it was "Never get into a contest of wits with a Sicilian".
Damn, I've been teaching it wrong all these years.
Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken. --- Bertrand Russell.
Two summers ago, I saw a sparrow eating a dragonfly. I thought it was a one-off. Nope! Last summer I saw it again, more than once: I even saw the bird accidentally let the dragonfly go, the dragonfly attempted to fly off, the sparrow go after it, catch it and eventually eat it. A few weeks later a new batch of sparrows learning to fly. They could fly but didn't go far from the nest. Along comes a magpie, and it starts grabbing and eating one of the little sparrows. I didn't think these little birds were carnivores. Surprise! I had seen the bigger birds go after the small ones (Red Tail Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, kestrels, owls, etc.), but had not seen the smaller birds go after each other (as food).
Maybe the fish just wanted a coconut?
Though, seeing as it was an African swallow, wouldn't a Monty Python reference be more fitting?
AJ Henderson
Looks like we need a new idiom to replace "a fish out of water".
Although they are paddling and not quite flying yet our large mouth bass love baby ducks. I wonder how any baby ducks survive as they are so easy a meal for the bass.
Have a look at River Monsters Season 2, Episode called "Demon Fish" and you will see Jeremy Wade catch one of these frightening Tiger fish in Africa. There is also another episode in Season 3 called "Jungle Killer" about the Wolf Fish, which has known to leap out to attack its prey.
In Soviet Africa, fish hunt bird!
If this has been reported since the 1940's, what's with it all of a sudden being "confirmed"? Can't we just say the guy back in the 1940's found the fish that did this behavior and be done with it?
Documented in the Amazon and many other fresh water bodies long ago with the Dragon Fish a.k.a. Arowana which jump out of the water to catch insects, birds and bats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_arowana
Amazing video catch. One in a million. You can see the pike in the water beforehand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_E4BUt1z8Y
*disclaimer- If you don't want to see a pike eat a duckling, don't watch this.
Aliens have landed on the planet, and we just videotaped them attacking and consuming a human.
'Tthe first reaction was one of pure joy, because we realized that we were spectators to something really incredible and unique" says Nico Smit, director of the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Incredible and unique are not synonymous with good.
The shark didn't swallow the 747 whole. I feel shortchanged!
(at the end of The Colbert Report for example) makes more sense now! :D
... (at the end of The Colbert Report for example) makes more sense now! :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl5k7-PzTl0