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)."

Comments

Fly fishing?

[tomhath]

I've been using the wrong bait all these years.

unladen swallows

[Anonymous Coward]

perhaps if the swallow had been unladen, it would have escaped

Re:unladen swallows

[gman003]

I will note that while TFA does identify the species of the bird (Hirundo Rustica), it does not clarify whether this was Hirundo Rustica Rustica, the European Swallow, or Hirundo Rustica Savignii, the non-migratory Egyptian Swallow.

I feel this is crucial information to neglect.

Re:unladen swallows

[ericloewe]

Do not worry. Those in charge of sacking those in charge of writing the article have been sacked and thrown into the Gorge of Eternal Peril.

If you wish, an alternate article is available, done at great expense by a mid-90s web designer, which is backed by a soothing mexican tune.

Re:stupid western biologists.

[Assmasher]

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...)

Re:stupid western biologists.

[SJHillman]

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.

But what we really want to know

[XxtraLarGe]

Was the swallow carrying a coconut?

No actually, I didn't catch that.

[feepness]

I was too busy frantically reaching for the mute button to silence your horribly loud banjo music.

Impressive, most impressive

[Infiniti2000]

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.

Bass to it

[Charliemopps]

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"

Beware the CSI effect.

[DerekLyons]

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.