Hungry bird swallows whole pike (BBC News) (1 Viewer)

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BF Newsroom

Well-known member

• Feb 8, 2008

• #1

A photographer captures the moment a hungry cormorant swallows a foot-long pike whole.

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naturistbird

Well-known member

• Feb 8, 2008

• #2

A magic shot, except for the pike....!

 

robinm

Registered User

• Feb 8, 2008

• #3

I'd like to have seen it take off after that meal

 

Barred Wobbler

Well-known member

• Feb 8, 2008

• #4

A 14 inch pike would weigh about 15 - 16 ounces. Hardly a starter for a cormorant. They can get a pound to a pound-and-a half founder down, a different proposition altogether from a nice, streamlined pikelet, but it's a struggle.

Eels are good to watch too. They have a reverse gear and as the cormorant swallows them they keep reversing back out. By the time the bird finally gets it over the fish has been swallowed half a dozen times or more.

 

Hotspur

James Spencer

• Feb 8, 2008

• #5

Is it just me o does the bird on the link look like a double-crested cormorant?

 

S

scuba0095

Well-known member

• Feb 8, 2008

• #6

do the fish or eels ever try and bite the bird while they are being swallowed alive? THey have teeth!

 

NoSpringChicken

Well-known member

• Feb 8, 2008

• #7

scuba0095 said:

do the fish or eels ever try and bite the bird while they are being swallowed alive? THey have teeth!

Click to expand...

... and how long do they live inside the bird?

 

J

James_Owen

Well-known member

• Feb 8, 2008

• #8

NoSpringChicken said:

... and how long do they live inside the bird?

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You wouldn't believe how powerful a cormorant's digestive acids are. I was on a boat last year and saw a cormorant devour a sizeable trout. Little more than a minute later, it was spooked by another boat and regurgitated the meal to make for a faster getaway.
We got a nice close look at the fish, and its head had been completely dissolved, beyond the neck there was nothing but a straggly yellow mess.

 

NoSpringChicken

Well-known member

• Feb 8, 2008

• #9

James_Owen said:

You wouldn't believe how powerful a cormorant's digestive acids are. I was on a boat last year and saw a cormorant devour a sizeable trout. Little more than a minute later, it was spooked by another boat and regurgitated the meal to make for a faster getaway.
We got a nice close look at the fish, and its head had been completely dissolved, beyond the neck there was nothing but a straggly yellow mess.

Click to expand...

I wish I hadn't asked now. I was about to go and get my Chinese takeaway but I think I might just wait a minute.:eat:

Ron

 

Barred Wobbler

Well-known member

• Feb 8, 2008

• #10

What were you having Ron? Pickled trout-head with water chestnuts?

 

Karl J

Well-known member

• Feb 8, 2008

• #11

Oh to be in the right place at the right time, or not if you were the pike !

slightly off at a tangent but did anyone else see that snake swallowing the whole deer ? I think it was on Life In Cold Blood (but i may be wrong)