Catfish Strands Itself To Kill Pigeons 115
A reader 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.'"
The article forgot to mention... humans (Score:2, Funny)
"Argentinian killer whales swim onto beaches to snag resting sealions" ... and humans: Bad day for a swim, man eaten by an orca killer whale [youtube.com]
With a giant catfish I doubt it could not do the same to an adult, but perhaps a toddler unattended.
Re:Sample Video ... catfish catching pigeons (Score:5, Funny)
Amen!! Forget sharks, I want a goddamn pigeon-eating catfish with a laser on its head!
It's a catfish, after all... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Temporarily stranded? (Score:5, Funny)
...and anything that gets rid of pigeons is a good thing :-).
But then we might run into a shortage of carrier pigeons.
Then how will I implement my company's RFC1149 compliant network?