I have bad news for you. Rats are cannibalistic. If there's plenty of food to go around and the mothers are capable of raising all the babies they give birth to, rats will keep the cannibalism to a minimum-- at least among the living-- because there's no need for it, though they're not at all above eating any dead rats they happen upon, if that's the choicest bit of food they can find in the area. However, rats use cannibalism as a form of both population and resource control. If food starts running short in general, the biggest, fittest rats will start killing and eating the smaller ones, and if a mother rat doesn't think she can raise all her pups successfully, she eats the most expendable of her offspring until she has her litter pared down to a size she can successfully manage. That means a rat's diet often consists of rats, sooooo....
Remarkable how he works his way, little by little, from gripping a hind leg in his beak, around the belly, to a foreleg, and eventually he has it by the neck. Rats are good at wriggling free and have a good bite, too- quite a feat. It was pretty well strangled at the end, had to go in head-first so the lay of its fur didn't impede progress down the gullet. A lot going on- thanks for the video.
I simultaneously admire and loathe the heron for being so efficient at hunting. It was literally impossible for the rat to even hurt the heron, much less save itself. It was completely 100% doomed.
"Ok ok! I saw miss heron in the pond last night. Nothing happened I swear!" "Thank you mr. Rat" for that information. See, that wasn't so hard now was it? Now, for my end of the bargain...." "Oh thank you, thank-----" NOMNOMNOMNOM!!!!!
Lies Bus clearly by the time the rat was swallowed it was either dead or unconscious. If unconscious it will die quickly of asphyxiation within the bird’s gut. Maybe you need therapy.
@Lies Bus are you serious ? You've to be kidding, aren't you ? Mice are a worldwide plague, I virtually impossible of killing off, no matter how many of then you kill there will be always thousands more, birds however are endangered, why do mice exist if not for feeding others animals more importants....by the way the word " torture" is applicable only on humans, look for psychological help asap.
Lies Bus you've given me all the "data" I need to profile you boy. You may be able to hide from yourself, but you can't hide from me. I never said there was shame in empathy. However hiding behind narcissism and your weak-minded inability to acknowledge the reality of the planet on which you live is, in fact, shameful. Also, insulting others for your mental and physical shortcomings is sad and quite pathetic. "Civilization's" cracks open up and swallow idiots like you every day. I would feel bad for you, in particular, if you hadn't been so nasty and insulting to so many other people. Be as weak and scared as you want, but don't criticize others for your pathetic existence.
Once every blue moon I get diverted to a video on RU-vid which makes trawling through all the other dross worthwhile. A fascinating video that showed me something in the world I would never otherwise have been able to witness. Really well filmed too. Many thanks Paul.
@@Vasonviper I never said that’s not the case. I’m saying animals don’t reason like humans . They live off instincts alone. So if it’s not apart of their normal day to day instinct , they kill how them know best. Usually herons eat fish as their main meal . So they would never reason like a man or woman and say oooh this is a more efficient way if I drown it
@@MichaelWilson-ep8pc smooth brain take. The only significant difference between human brains and other animal brains is the capacity for language. There’s no reason a bird can’t understand drowning, it probably just used the method it knows best so it’s prey wouldn’t escape.
Actually no. Theropods had teeth and you know that. Besides they have fossil evidence of teeth marks on dinosaur herbivores such as hadrosaurs. More like bite, rip, and swallow whole.
Another rat bites the dust, and another rat gone, another rat gone, another rat bites the dust! All jokes aside, great piece of filming and thanks for sharing it.
Dublin have much of a heroin use problem? If so, I'm guessing its largely teen and 20+ year olds from around the country who live homeless downtown.. likely clustered around welfare 'hubs' like needle exchange sites? Like I say, that is just a guess but one based on personal observation of metros in the United States and Canada, specifically Portland, Seattle & Vancouver. Interestingly enough, in my hometown city in Texas (approx. 100k people) heroin was virtually unheard of until a few years ago. Cartels sensed a business opportunity with the restricting of opiod availability that began 7 or 8 years ago and filled the 'need' of the suburban opiate addicts here. I'm not sure to what degree it is happening these days, as addicts there do not have the visible presence they do in a large metro.
The heron’s grasp on the rat was very clear at the end of the video but at the beginning of the video it was hard to tell how it had such a solid grasp on the rat.
Since herons eat a lot of fish and amphibians, I wouldn't bee too surprised to learn there were tiny little serrations along the edges of its beak, both top and bottom, to act like teeth. And if those serrations are backwards pointing, once the heron had got a grip on the rat, there really was only one way that rat was going... down!
Holy cow! Dinosaurs: 1, Mammals: 0. You can really see the adaptive advantage of that beak over a fleshy jaw given how the heron eats -- the rat can scratch and gnaw at it all it wants, but it's not going to do any good. I don't feel sorry for rats too often, but that did not look like a fun ordeal. Not an easy operation to go from "caught" to "swallowed" with this big struggling morsel. Given the heron's behavior of dipping its prey in the water to presumably make it go down more easily (?), you'd sort of think some of them would have accidentally discovered that you can drown land prey for easy swallowing if you dunk them for longer, and passed it down via instinct or culture. Anyhow, nice going capturing this! Out of interest, what software are you using for camera deshaking? It's interesting how it slo-mos the clip when it takes effect, and how it clips the borders in one step, rather than doing a zoom. I'm currently going back through all my old videos and remastering them with Gunnar Thalin's Deshaker plugin for VirtualDub. It can achieve pretty amazing and seamless results, but it generally requires a lot of handholding for each different clip (and you have to be careful about color space conversions).
It's not often that I read such an informed and interesting comment on YT. Your curiosity and level of knowledge (specifically, evolutionary biology) must be roughly comparable to mine* because I had much the same thought(s) while watching this video. I wouldn't be surprised if some heron (or heron population) somewhere hasn't figured out the drowning tactic and put it to regular use. Based on what I've seen in the literature and media, tool-use and 'culture' among primates & cetaceans appears to stay localized within groups or geographic populations, even when a species is global or regionally widespread. Makes me wonder to what degree diffusion of culture is restricted among intelligent species, and if complex language - or something else - is the adaptation that changes the paradigm for human, so to speak. As for that beak.. I winced everytime the rat bit it and kept wondering how long it would take for a rat that size to gnaw through at least some outer portion (the keratin layer?) and do some real damage to the heron. I never noticed any indication that the bird had sustained any injury or the rat had struck any vascularized-tissue. Amazing how tough keratin is... *likely a degree of magnitude greater than mine, if I'm being honest..
Sorry, 3 years later, but I believe some herons do drown prey. But this is their normal behaviour. They already do much by changing the menu since their natural prey are fish and amphibian. But that means they do not expect prey to drawn, like crocodiles do.
😲 OH MY GOSH! Herons are tougher than I thought! And it only used just enough effort to disorient the rat and dunk it at the right time for the rat to die before it swallowed it! A master!
mike jones It's what I know. Birds are not just birds. All you have to do is look at the feet and legs of an eagle or any bird of prey to know that it's once belonged to the dinosaurs. Unless all these evolutionists and biologists like Attenborough and Hawkins are wrong! I've seen enough programs on wildlife to know I'm right.
I just love watching herons hunting and I especially liked watching our Nankeen night Herrons, in the evening standing statue still at the edge of the water and then the lightning fast strike on the quarry. The fact that they will eat anything that moves makes them extremely successful in any habitat. One thing I find strange, is the fact that they don’t seem to try and drown the wriggling prey and therefore make it easier to handle. Maybe they like the feeling of the animal kicking all the way down! 🤣👍👏👏
I remember seeing a comment on one of these heron years ago saying something along the lines of ‘the river is his dipping sauce’ and it’s stuck with me ever since 😂
+SoWhat83 well herons are very patient and very skilled. catching a rat one be one of its easier targets. it didnt get lucky,they do this everyday of their lives. just didn't know if you were serious or not.
that large beak is such a hard counter to small rodents, i've thought it over and short of nawing its own arm or leg off that rat wasn't going to get away, larger prehistoric birds most have had a heyday during there prime.
You would have thought that the heron would have held the rat under & drowned it instead of dunkin' it like a Mcdonut. But who cares? I hate rats! You're my HERO(n)! Btw great video. Steady camera, sharp focus, & NO mindless inane "music". The sound of the brook was beautiful.
Not too intelligent though. It could have easily drown the rat in a minute or 2. Drowning it would have been faster, easier to eat and there would be zero chance of the rat ripping a hole in its stomach.
taxiuniversum I am so glad that you told me that. Here in South Florida we have “Herons” that stand 14 (fourteen) feet tall. My neighbor's child was eaten by a heron. Or an alligator we’re not sure.
+Chad Hurley ---Herons normally feed on fish and crustaceans. Therefore, it doesn't occur to them to drown something they catch. Fish and crustaceans don't drown.
Mike Foley I think I was quoting whimsically about how superior humans are to birds. But it was just a stupid comment. But I still believe that a large heron ate my neighbors young son.
When I was a child I lived on a farm and we had a stream running through woodland. A Great Heron lived there and it used to terrify me. It would stand completely still for hours near the stream like an old man in a grey overcoat completely hidden and if we came across it by accident it would fly off with a great flapping of its enormous wings through the trees clattering the undergrowth and branches.
Amazing how the heron’s intelligence works. At first he tried hitting the rat against the water to better bite it, then learns how the water alerted the rat and wouldn’t stop fighting for its life and eventually used that as a tool for him to get an idea of the rat’s vital energy.
Actually, herons dip their prey in water to make it easier to slide down the throat. A wet furry body is easier to swallow than a dry furry body. He was simply biding his time waiting for the rat's stamina to exhaust itself to the point where it could no longer harm the heron.
Poor Mr Rat, was on his way home after a long day at work... his wife n kids waiting for him. He doesn’t return. His wife is thinking he’s having an affair with some floozy, and she’s plotting what she’ll do to them when she finds out... little does she know, the poor guy spent the last few minutes struggling for his life, pleading with a monster, for he has a wife and kids... without success. His wife will be forever thinking he’s left her for someone else.... Poor Mr Rat 😢💐 RIP.
Hearons seem to be creatures that are so determined to eat the meal once they catch it. There's no. "Ok you put up a good struggle so I'll just let you go," or "oh you're still alive, so I can't swallow you just yet." There's none of that. Imagine something like that, but about nine feet tall. Humans would have no chance. Now thats a scary thought!! But it would certainly make life a bit interesting, wouldn't it? Like, oh f..k! R u n..! the herons are on a homo sapien hunt.🤔😖😖🦖🦖😂😂
Imagine being half-drowned and having a few limbs crushed, then finally taken inside where it is completely dark, where there is no more oxygen and where acids are eating your flesh. The poor rat did not suffer long once he was down the heron's throat.
"Slowly I turn...inch by inch...step by step!" I think herons must like being on camera because every other predator seems to slip behind the bushes, but the heron is like "Hold my beer!"