African goby leaps to catch birds, why is the accuracy so high? Why do fish eat birds?

"The furthest distance in the world is the distance between fish and birds, one soars into the sky, and one dives deep into the ocean floor."

Flying bird's stall and departure, Yuer's look and attention, and occasionally the eyes meet, but each other's figure has been carved into the heart of each other, playing the prelude to the sad story.

Today ’s sad story has nothing to do with the wind and the moon between the fish and the bird. It tells about the life and death fight between the fish and the bird, and it is also a consistently inferior fish to counterattack and kill the bird.

Live by the mountains and eat the mountains, eat by the sea, and wading birds are fish-hunting hunters, such as ducks and wild geese of poultry, egrets and cranes of wading birds. Bird catching fish is a natural instinct and will notWhen flying penguins get into the sea, they can dive to a depth of 535 meters to catch fish, and flying puffins can dive to a depth of 60 meters to catch fish. Even the small and delicate kingfisher, even if the dive is not deep, every time after entering the water, it can stillCaught a fish or two.

Birds can run, they can jump, they can fly, they can swim, dive from the sky into the ocean, and directly capture the fish trapped in the water. However, not all fish are left to their fate, and they are allowed to be killed by bird bullying. In the vast watersThere are a group of fierce and unruly fishes. They have no wings and no claws. With a big mouth, they can counterattack birds for dinner.

Fish catching fish is not news. In the ocean, sharks eat birds very often. In freshwater fish, there are also several types of fish that prey on birds, such as catfish, largemouth bass, eel, barracuda.And piranha.

The picture above was taken in southern France. Catfish caught a dove. It is similar to the process of sharks catching seals. Catfish lurking in the shallows on the shore, watching the group of pigeons foraging by the water, while the pigeons are not ready,Rush out of the water and bite the prey.

The picture above shows that a small duck's barracuda was attacked from underwater. The barracuda caught the duck's dexterity, rushed straight towards the target in the water, and grabbed the duck to withdraw.

Most bird-eating fish, like catfish and barracuda, hunt birds that stay on the water surface. As long as the birds spread their wings and fly away from the water, fierce fish can do nothing. In Africa, there is a kind ofFreshwater fish is more powerful than other fish that lurk in the water to catch birds. It can jump into the air and catch flying birds. This kind of freshwater fish is the protagonist of today's story, named African tiger fish.

African tiger fish

African tigerfish Hydrocynus vittatus is slender, with silver fish scales, black stripes on the top, and red tail fins with black edges behind it. The most striking thing about an ordinary tiger fish is its large size.Mouth and a sharp tooth. 8 tiger teeth have 8 teeth above and below, sharp and solid, sparsely inserted into the gum like a cone-shaped doorpost.

Goby is a common fish species in Africa. It is found in the three major rivers of the Nile, Congo and Niger rivers, as well as Lake Tanganyika and other lakes. African goby can grow to 1 meter in length, the heaviest tigerThe fish is over 70 kg. It is widely distributed and large and fleshy tiger fish are very popular and an important food source for the locals.

Tiger, as its name suggests, is a ferocious carnivore that preys on other fish as its ration. Tiger fish's favorite prey are: cichlid, carp, and black-lined sturgeon. In the past ten years or more, tiger fishAdded a new flavor, swallows flying in the sky. [Know the Daily-France is Bacon-Do not reprint other platforms without authorization]

Goby catches Gu Yan

In 1993, a Schroder dam was constructed in South Africa to circle an artificial lake. After more than 10 years, some people have seen tiger fish in Schroeder leap from the water and catch Gu Yan flying on the lake..

Hirundo rustica has an average flying speed of not less than 30 kilometers per hour. Even when decelerating close to the water to catch insects, Gu Yan can dash up or turn around in time. Gu Yan, known for his agility,It's hard to imagine that fish can't be escaped in the sky.

Before the construction of the Schroder Dam, no one had ever seen a goby catching birds in flight. This time the goby hunted Gu Yan, was it an accidental outbreak of luck, or was it just a false rumor? Northwest University of South AfricaThe team set up a camera by Lake Schroeder to verify the truth of goby and bird catching.

The details of the video shocked the team. It was completely different from the imagination. The tiger fish did not attack and kill from below Gu Yan.

A fish, a fish that does not fly without wings, can only catch flying birds in the air by relying on catapult jumping.

The team found :

High-frequency attacks and skilled skills confirm that Tiger Fish treats Gu Yan as a formal ration, rather than accidentally changing flavors. They have hone their predatory air hunting skills in long-term practical training.

The team also set up a camera underwater in Lake Schroder to observe the predation process of the tiger fish in depth. The team found that the tiger fish has mastered two killing skills, one is to lock the target in the deep water and float on the water.Follow Gu Yan, choose the timing to leap forward; another skill is to sprint from a depth of half a meter directly after the target is found in the deep water without tracking, and hunt Gu Yan out of the water.

a is the flight path of Gu Yan, b is the tracking and killing path of the tiger fish, and c is the path of the killing the tiger fish directly from the deep water.

When the tiger fish locks the target in the sky in the water, the position of Gu Yan seen in the eyes is at an angle deviation from the actual position. There is a refraction of light from the air into the water, and the refraction of the light causes the sight of the tiger fish.Position is behind Gu Yan's actual position.

When the goby adopts the tracking and killing strategy, it emerges from the water, and the gaze is locked in the air, and it will not be affected by light refraction, which can locate the target more accurately. Theoretically, the tracking is not affected by the light refraction.The killing success rate should be higher than that of direct killing, but the actual result is that when tracking and killing on the surface of the water, it succeeds once in 7 times; in the case of direct killing in deep water, it succeeds once in 3 times.

The success rate of direct killing is more than 2 times higher than that of tracking killing, which is enough to prove that the tiger fish has corrected the deviation caused by the light refraction. The tiger fish knows that the position where it sees it is different from the actual position of Gu Yan, and it canAccurately estimate the angle of refraction of the light and determine the correct position of Gu Yan.

How strong is the judgment ability of the tiger fish? You can try to experience it. When you observe the flies flying in the air through a glass of water, can you accurately determine the position of the flies? For the tiger fish, this cup affectsThe line of sight is more than half a meter deep.

Why do tiger fish catch birds to eat?

Tigers in other lakes and rivers do not go to catch birds, why do tiger fishes in Lake Schroder have to counterattack to vacate the sky to catch Gu Yan in the air?

When biologists observe and record the behavior of goby bird catching, they also find that many big goby fish are in very bad physical condition. Compared with natural lakes and rivers, the food in artificial lakes surrounded by dams is very bad.Scarce.

The killing skills of tiger fish are acquired sexual behaviors. The young tiger fish observe the hunting ability in the school of fish and hone their skills in practice. The success rate of the small tiger fish in Schroeder Lake is relatively low. They prefer to use the water surface.Follow the way to capture Gu Yan. After the little tiger fish has accumulated experience in surface tracking and killing, then you can master the skills of deep water attack and improve your winning rate.

The distance between the birds and the fish is the lonely emotional distance in the song, and in the real world it is the distance between life and death.

Flying birds to catch fish is an instinctual talent, but catching birds to fly is a new ability to counterattack under the pressure of survival. Nature gives life a variety of possibilities. Whenever life seizes an opportunity, it can start a new journey.

: The title picture is not a tiger fish hunting Gu Yan, but a Caranx ignobilis in the ocean to capture the tern Onychoprion fuscatus. The fishing skills of the tiger fish and Zhen fish are the same.Goby fishing does not have HD photos.