{"id":271281,"date":"2026-02-06T21:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/271281\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:34:08","slug":"these-enormous-invasive-fish-almost-exterminated-local-fish-stocks-now-theyve-started-snatching-pigeons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/271281\/","title":{"rendered":"These enormous invasive fish almost exterminated local fish stocks. Now they\u2019ve started snatching pigeons"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Tarn River, in the French town of Albi, pigeons<\/a> gather to wash off dirt and dust. But as the oils from their feathers wash downstream, a huge predator senses the birds. They feel their way to the pigeons using sensitive whiskers.<\/p>\n

Once close enough, the creature lunges out of the water, momentarily stranding itself, then pulls an unsuspecting pigeon into the water and eats it.<\/p>\n

These scenes in southern France aren\u2019t dissimilar to the way killer whales<\/a> strand themselves to hunt sea lion pups in Argentina, or how bottlenose dolphins<\/a> drive small fish onto beaches in Southeastern US.<\/p>\n

This incredible animal is the Wels catfish, native to eastern Europe. One of the largest freshwater fish found in Europe and Western Asia, it reaches lengths between 1-2 metres.<\/p>\n

After introductions into rivers by anglers, it has since spread into waterways across western and southern Europe. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

In those waters, they\u2019re considered an invasive species<\/a>, and as David Attenborough<\/a> narrates in footage from Planet Earth II<\/a>, they have \u201cvirtually exterminated the local fish stocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this beaching behaviour hasn\u2019t been recorded in its native habitat<\/a> \u2013 only where the Wels catfish has spread, making this fish a somewhat extreme example of how invasive species can adapt to new environments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the Tarn River, in the French town of Albi, pigeons gather to wash off dirt and dust.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-271281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}