This Photo Of Baby Weasel Flying On A Woodpecker Won Our Hearts -- Until We Realized What Was Happening The Huffington Post | By Cavan Sieczkowski Email Posted: 03/03/2015 11:06 am EST Updated: 2 hours ago
A baby weasel took the ride of a lifetime on the back of a woodpecker, and a photographer just happened to be lucky enough to capture the amazing moment.
The photo shows a weasel soaring atop a majestic green woodpecker. But, as BuzzFeed so cleverly phrased it, this was no fairytale pairing:
As much as we’d all like to believe this is a wondrous tale of friendship wherein two mates go on an epic adventure featuring a baby weasel and his magnificent flying steed, sadly it’s NOT. It’s a photo of a weasel trying to kill a woodpecker.
Photographer Martin Le-May was on a walk with his wife at Hornchurch Country Park in East London on Monday when they heard a distressed call and spotted a woodpecker fall behind some grass, Le-May told The Huffington Post UK. The bird was thrashing, and Le-May and his wife noticed there was an animal on its back. It was a weasel.
"The woodpecker landed in front of us and I feared the worst," he said. "I guess though our presence, maybe 25 metres away, momentarily distracted the weasel. The woodpecker seized the opportunity and flew up and away into some bushes away to our left. Quickly the bird gathered its self respect and flew up into the trees and away from our sight. The woodpecker left with its life, the weasel just disappeared into the long grass, hungry."
Wildlife expert Lucy Cooke explained to BBC News that while they usually attack rabbits, weasels are "fearless" predators and it isn't totally shocking that one would go after a woodpecker, a ground-feeder.
"A female weasel weighs less than a Mars Bar but is as ferocious as a lion, so this is why the woodpecker would have been able to take off with it on its back," Cooke said. . . . "Today is your day to have a better life -- it's your right."
9. "those beetles remind me of those monsters from Dark Crystal" In response to Reply # 1
they were the monster the other monster rode on top of. Either way I would never live on a continent that had those things. Yep not country but continent. I need a whole ocean separating us.
November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!
15. "These animals listen to too much Nat King Cole." In response to Reply # 13
A buzzard took a monkey for a ride in the air, The monkey thought that everything was on the square. The buzzard tried to throw the monkey off his back, The monkey grabbed his neck and said, "Now listen, Jack..."
Straighten up and fly right, Straighten up and stay right Straighten up and fly right Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top. Ain't no use in divin', What's the use in jivin'? Straighten up and fly right Cool down, papa, don't you blow your top.