Plenty of documentation exists for birds hunting for fish. It’s not even news. But fish jumping out of water to hunt birds? Well, that’s almost a fabled tale and one not so readily believed. Now we have a first confirmed record of a fish hunting for birds. The video above shows an African Tigerfish catching hold of a swallow in flight.
Anecdotal reports of freshwater fish preying on birds have been around for years, but they were never quite believed in. Nico Smit, director of the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa, was with the group that saw, and recorded the rare phenomenon. During their time at the freshwater lake in Mapungubwe National Park, the researchers saw roughly twenty such successful strikes on barn swallows every day.
Actions of the fish included pursuits at the surface followed by leaps, and sometimes, direct attacks from deeper water. Their findings have been published in the Journal of Fish Biology.
Via Nature