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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
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
You're an idiot. Confirming it shouldn't be confused with claiming that locals were wrong. It's simply a case of there being evidence that didn't come from a fisherman (and if African fisherman are anything like the fisherman in my neck of the woods, I wouldn't exactly take their word for it either...)
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NIH, not invented here
but you can't write science based on hearsay. so many of these tribal people have legends and old wives tales that are so far removed from the original truth they are based on
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
According to the local fisherman, several 747s and at least one Russian space capsule have been swallowed whole by jumping fish. At 20,000 feet. In a blizzard. Uphill both ways.
So basically, you don't know what the word confirmed means?
Just reminds me of Randy Johnson hitting a dove with a fastball.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZHNNUSI18g
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.
NIH, not invented here
but you can't write science based on hearsay. so many of these tribal people have legends and old wives tales that are so far removed from the original truth they are based on
Yeah, like that book about the Jesus guy and stuff.
According to the local fisherman, several 747s and at least one Russian space capsule have been swallowed whole by jumping fish. At 20,000 feet. In a blizzard. Uphill both ways.
Because of black magic.
And hallucinations.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I16_8l0yS-g
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.
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.
And Columbus discovered America.
It means it was observed by a real person with letters after their name and not a prole, obviously.
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.
And Edison 'invented' electricity.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
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".
several 747s
Here's some actual video footage of one such incident.
According to the local fisherman, several 747s and at least one Russian space capsule have been swallowed whole by jumping fish. At 20,000 feet. In a blizzard. Uphill both ways.
There's a guy who caught one of them.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
That was a science book?
It is in Texas, Florida, Alabama et al.
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.
No, only if the pitch was a sinker.
In Soviet Africa, fish hunt bird!
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
I've seen largemouth bass take dragonflies at full speed over the water, and those little things are fast. That a larger fish could take a bird in flight comes as no surprise.
For the fish a bird is a large, tasty, pretty much defenseless (once it hits the water) meal.
Nico Smit, director of the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University in Potchefstroom, needs to get out more.
Get off my lawn.
The ump ruled it a fowl ball
I am a fisherman. And I can confirm that I did, indeed, hook a 747 once. It got away.
weird... I saw a large gull attempting to eat a roadkilled minor bird... it kept trying to swallow it hole but couldn't, would gag it up then try again, all while another minor bird watched...