Watch shocking moment crocodile hunts migratory bird in Australia. ‘Brutality of nature’
Pomarine jaegers, a white and gray migratory gull, makes its home on the outskirts of the Arctic Circle.
Called a “pirate of the ocean” by bird experts, pomarine jaegers can fly thousands of miles in a year as they circle the North Pole.
Sometimes, however, the birds get blown a little off course and find themselves in southern waters — and then become prey to exotic predators.
Australian wildlife officials saw one of these birds during a population survey on Pelican Island, just a few miles from the coast of Queensland in the Great Barrier Reef region, according to a March 26 news release from the Queensland Government Department of Environment, Science and Innovation.
As soon as they noticed the feathered explorer, they saw another island visitor “in the shallows,” officials said.
Lying at the edge of the water was a saltwater crocodile, officials said, hungrily eyeing the birds on the beach.
“We were lucky enough to take photos and videos of the crocodile as it crawled from the ocean, but what we didn’t know is it set its sights on the bird,” Senior Ranger Lee Hess said in the release.
In a video shared by the department, the crocodile lunges from the water and snaps at the jaeger, capturing the bird in its mouth.
“Oh my god!” a ranger yells in the background. “That poor bird.”
Other birds come closer to the crocodile to check out what just happened.
“There’s no way we’ve just seen that,” a ranger says. “And in the water it goes.”
The video ends as the crocodile pulls the bird back into the surf and turns around to enjoy its tasty snack.
“The pomarine jaeger was the only one of its species on the island, and I’m not sure it had ever seen a crocodile before and wasn’t attuned to the danger. The bird wasn’t looking at the ocean and the crocodile simply grabbed it and then headed back to the water,” Hess said. “We believe it is the first recorded meeting between an estuarine crocodile and a pomarine jaeger, and unfortunately, it was a long way to fly to end up like this.”
Crocodiles are less unexpected on the islands, if still a bit of a surprise.
They are strong swimmers, the rangers said, so while it’s unclear whether the crocodile had taken up residence on the island or just popped over to take advantage of the bird buffet, it’s important to stay on the lookout for crocodiles.
The rangers bore witness to “the brutality of nature,” they said in a March 26 Facebook post, but added that it was a “timely reminder” that people living in crocodile areas should be “responsible for their own safety” and “make sensible choices around the water.”
Pelican Island is about 10 miles off the coast of Queensland on Australia’s east coast.
This story was originally published March 26, 2024 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Watch shocking moment crocodile hunts migratory bird in Australia. ‘Brutality of nature’."
