Scientists from the University of Toulouse have captured wels catfish sneaking up on pigeons washing themselves in France’s River Tarn, and beaching themselves to catch and eat them. 

They observed the amazing behaviour 45 times, 28% of which resulted in successful captures. Researchers have published their findings in the journal PLoS One, along with the accompanying video showing two successful and two unsuccessful attacks.

The study says: “Since this extreme behaviour has not been reported in the native range of the species, our results suggest that some individuals in introduced predator populations may adapt their behaviour to forage on novel prey in new environments, leading to behavioural and trophic specialization to actively cross the water-land interface.”

Image credit: PLoS One