In November this year, American photographer Davis took an "alien" photo in the Maryland Nature Reserve: a snake eel swaying around on the flying heron .
At the beginning, Davis thought it was the heron that caught the snake eel or bit the heron, but after carefully observing the photos, he found that it was the snake eel that crawled out of the heron's belly!
Judging from the slightly bent head, the snake eel is still alive, but it obviously only escaped half and the other half is stuck in the heron's belly.
The heron pierced in the belly seemed to care that it was "seriously injured". It still flies and stands normally, as if the snake eel was originally part of it.
Davis also noticed that not far behind this awkward "combination", two young eagles and a fox are quietly following them.
They probably think that the herons may not live for too long, and they may even fall to the ground immediately, so they prepare to take possession of delicious food in advance.
After seeing Davis's photos, many people were amazed at the survival ability of snake eels. They could not imagine what kind of creature this was.
In fact, snake dried eel is completely their instinctive reaction. If it is eaten alive by other animals, they will do the same thing.
The picture shows: snake eel
snake eels often dry and "drill"
snake eels are a kind of marine fish under the eels. They usually live in shallow waters along the coast of the North Atlantic Ocean. There are currently more than 200 snake eels found.
They are carnivorous fish. They usually come out to feed at night. Most of the time they hide in the mud and sand at the bottom of the sea, waiting for opportunities to prey on some small fish and crustaceans.
At the same time, they are also easily eaten by some other larger carnivorous fish, and when the danger falls, they have little power to fight back.
The slenderness and slenderness of snake eels are obvious to all, but its true unique feature is their tails.
Snake eels have very sharp and hard tails, which is a very useful digging tool for them who like to hide themselves in the sand on the seabed.
Figure: Snake eels have sharp tails
But the role of their tails in another situation is even more amazing, that is, when they are eaten by predatory fish.
Snake eels are often swallowed alive by predatory fish and enter their stomachs. But the snake eel may not die soon, it will find a way to escape.
is unrealistic to return to the esophagus and crawl out of the big fish's mouth. What should I do? At this time, their sharp and hard tails came in handy.
"Snail Eel" in the big fish's stomach will pierce the big fish's stomach wall with its pointed tail, escape from it, and then make the next escape plan.
Unfortunately, their "drills" cannot penetrate the outer wall of the intestinal cavity that is stronger than the stomach wall, and after a futile struggle, they will still die.
Scientists collected 11 predatory fish from different places in Australia. After dissection, they found that 7 of them had snake eels in their bodies. Of course, that was their corpse.
Some corpses died in the stomach of big fish, and some died in the mesenteria of the outer wall of the intestinal cavity. The latter is the same as we say.
Speaking of this, we should be able to understand the scene that Davis saw, the protagonist changed from a predatory fish to a carnivorous water bird .
Unfortunate herons
Herons usually feed in shallow waters, mainly preying on fish and frogs. They often pick up a fish or frog in their long mouth and swallow it all.
They may rarely eat snake eels, after all, the amazing scenes mentioned at the beginning are not very common, provided that we believe in the drilling (survival) ability of snake eels.
But this heron is in a bad mood. It may be too hungry and swallowed a thing that it may not want to eat in a mess.
For snake eels, this may be "a blessing in disgrace". It will not think that it will not eat its own fish but the water bird, nor will it think that it can pierce the water bird's body and avoid suffocation to death.
Will the heron and snake eel, the "brother of brothers" become an eagle or fox's on-the-trade meal?
Herons are likely to survive even with the risk of "stomach perforation", which depends on whether the wound can heal as soon as possible and avoid infection.
The possibility of snake eel survival is relatively low. After all, it is an aquatic organism, and long-term exposure to the air will cause it to dehydrate and die.
If you can break free from the heron's belly and fall into a watery area, there is a possibility of survival, which would definitely be a miracle.
Last
Heron-Snake Eel This "magical combination" is really a rare coincidence. It just so happens that the outer wall of one side is not thick, and the other side has a pointed tail.
Whether snake eels can escape from danger or escape from death is unknown, and whether herons can survive the disaster, but their existence allows us to see the diverse possibilities of life.
As bystanders, we send them a sentence: If you survive a disaster, you will have good fortune.
