Fish, birds or insects… Portraits of some predators who use trickery or force to catch their prey.
Extraordinary hunting scene. We are in the Atlantic, off the coast of Norway. Imagine not one predator, but 2.5 million! Of the cod or cod gathered for the greatest predation ever observed by scientists. The cod have spotted their favorite fish, capelin, and there are many of them during this breeding season: 23 million individuals massed in a school that stretches for kilometers.
Grouping together is a defense technique shared by many gregarious animals, because there is strength in unity. But the cod were stronger and are four times bigger. Results: more than 10 million fish engulfed in a few hours.
Here we are now in Australia. A fire is raging. Of the boys – kites and hawks – have spotted the smoke, and in their hundreds they arrive above the fire to grab flaming branches which they release in areas still spared by the fire, to force their prey to get out of the woods. The meal is served hot.
Headbutt
We return to the bottom of the water, where a crustacean walks around that looks like a shrimp, with incredible colors like green, red, blue… It’s the squill, undoubtedly the most terrible predator in the oceans , thanks to the strength of its legs and their speed. It strikes in a thousandth of a second, at a speed of 100 km/h – it’s unstoppable, it’s the record among animals. And it hits with incredible force: 1,500 newtons. A punch in the water.
L’killer whaleTo knock out her prey, she prefers to use ball or tail blows that catapult them into the air. A spider, in Australia, invented a weapon: a ball of glue that it secretes, hanging from a thread, at the end of a leg, and which it throws at the prey, stuck in it.
But the most efficient predator in the animal world is above all suspicion: the dragonflyso graceful. It has a 97% success rate, thanks to 360-degree vision and wings so efficient that it can even reverse.
What is a UFO?
Not to be confused with a UFO, in the sky, a UFO is an unidentified floating object, which boats can hit at sea: containers, pieces of wood, but most often whales or dolphins… The direction of the Vendée Globe, the sailing race around the world which starts today, has therefore decided for the first time to prohibit two navigation zones in the Atlantic, in the Azores, on the migratory route of cetaceans, and around Cape Verde, where humpback whales are currently breeding. A skipper says he killed a whale while it was sleeping. But beyond the racing boats, which go faster and faster, the ships that crisscross the oceans kill 20,000 whales per year. A slaughter far greater than whaling, which represents, every day, 55 victims of maritime accidents.
Swiss
