No, it’s not an eagle holding a snake, but an eel trying to escape. The fish escaped because it has a pointed tail that is usually used to dig at the bottom of the water. As for the heron, its fate is unknown after suffering serious injuries to the neck and stomach. No matter how studied nature may seem, it always surprises us. This is demonstrated by Sam Davis, an amateur photographer from Maryland in the United States, who captured an unusual scene in which an eel breaks free from the heron that devoured it, piercing the bird’s throat.
A snake eel emerging from a heron
The images of Sam Davis have gone viral and users were amazed on social networks. Even he couldn’t believe it when he saw the heron flying overhead with a snake eel that he had eaten recently escaping down its throat. Even when he shared the photos on the social network, he made a little joke:
“The old proverb that says, ‘be careful what you eat’, is valid for this heron that devoured an eel that was able to escape.”
Although the eel was expected to escape the situation, the heron landed in the water, remained there for a short period, and retook flight, still with the new tenant clinging to it.
But who will survive in the end?
As John Pogonski, an ichthyologist at the Australian National Fish Collection at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), explained to Live Science, it is most likely that the bird could survive, as long as the wound healed well and It won’t get infected. The other animal would have a more difficult time unless it managed to fall right into the water with a salinity that it could tolerate.
This story was written in Spanish by Perla Vallejo in Ecoosfera
