Last night on the River Swale, as dusk fell, I witnessed something special.
Right at my feet, two huge perch harried a dace of a couple of ounces. They chased it into the shallow water and in the end, ina panic, it flipped itself out of the water so it landed on the sandy bank right at the edge of the water, around 2 feet from me. As I watched, these two perch weighed up the situation, then one just lunged forward so it was 3/4 out of the water, grabbed this dace, then flipped itself back into the deeper water where it swallowed it whole.
It was exactly like the famous Attenburough scene where the killer whales beach the seals, then come straight out of the water to grab them.
I didn't know perch could be so aggressive.
Right at my feet, two huge perch harried a dace of a couple of ounces. They chased it into the shallow water and in the end, ina panic, it flipped itself out of the water so it landed on the sandy bank right at the edge of the water, around 2 feet from me. As I watched, these two perch weighed up the situation, then one just lunged forward so it was 3/4 out of the water, grabbed this dace, then flipped itself back into the deeper water where it swallowed it whole.
It was exactly like the famous Attenburough scene where the killer whales beach the seals, then come straight out of the water to grab them.
I didn't know perch could be so aggressive.