That's one way New York City is dealing with its rodent problem. A blue heron was seen eating a giant rat in Central Park, and the whole thing was caught on video.
The footage was captured by a Reddit user who posted it to the “Hardcore Nature” subreddit. As the poster explains, while doing yoga with a friend in Central Park next to Harlem Meer on Saturday, about 10 feet away, “a very large great blue heron was just acting totally dinosaur-like.”
“We soon realised that he was hunting a large rat. The battle did not go well for the rat and the proceedings were not a sight for the faint-hearted,” the user wrote. “The rat fought hard and valiantly for its life but was mortally wounded by the heron's beak and was then held by its neck and swung until it drowned.”
At the point where they filmed the “blue heron swallowing mouse whole like a snake,” the poor rodent was (perhaps thankfully) already dead. In the three-minute video, the majestic bird can be seen holding the lifeless mouse in its beak and, about two minutes later, swallowing the entire animal in a few gulps.
Towards the end, the outline of a rat can be seen emerging from the bird's neck, with the tail still protruding from its beak.
Central Park Blue Heron Eats City Rat Whole
by u/Particular-Neat-3328 on HardcoreNature
While rodents may not be a blue heron's first choice, the birds' diets are “highly variable and adaptable,” according to the National Audubon Society. Blue herons eat mostly fish, but they will also eat frogs, salamanders, turtles, snakes, insects, other small birds and, yes, even rodents.
As one commenter succinctly put it: “Send this bird to the subway stations, PLEASE!”
