PELICAN EATS PIGEON [cc]

[CapnFuzz1111]

I just cringed.

[TheSkunkCat]

Oh, pelicans do this more often. They don't EXCLUSIVELY eat fish. And they will very specifically use their beaks to drown small birds and mammals.

Sure they primarily eat fish, but pelicans DO consider anything that fits in their mouth to be a potential meal. I know of an incident where one ate a chihuahua.

[EvilDickism]

Damn nature, you scary!!

[wounduppenguin]

I live in London and I've heard of those pelicans eating pigeons before and quite honestly I'm glad cos they are rats with wings!

On a side note although you did preface the video by saying you didn't know the gender of either the pelican or the pigeon, mainly male pronouns were used. An awful lot of people tend to identify animals as male by default (and I can only assume this is symptomatic of living in a patriarchal society) but I think Americans do it more often than Brits. In my experience.

[goofydog2]

OY! It's a Pelican's Life For Me...

[mrsanity]

The pelicans of St James' Park are quite often spotted eating pigeons. The flying rats are so numerous that any predation is more than welcome :~)

[gethsoftware]

Pelicans. assholes of bird world.

[playfuldespot]

That's just nuts. I had no idea pelicans would eat other birds--or could swallow them whole. Way to capture it on video.

[erpiczek]

Crazy nature...

[TheronSax]

Damn nature you scary!

[BiowareNut]

Dang.

[GreatBigBore]

Not quite as heart-wrenching as seeing the water buffalo linger for two weeks after being bitten by that giant lizard on the David Attenborough show.

[Ofrolvi793]

@GreatBigBore I think it is more the shock factor in this video, it just does not look right and gives the impression of a square peg in a round hole.

[dewinthemorning]

I knew that pelicans eat fish, but I didn't know they eat meat. Are they predators, then? Or is it just a one off, the pelican eating a pidgeon?

[Ofrolvi793]

@dewinthemorning It is apparently very common for them to devour birds and small critters of all types.

[tilsetningsstoff]

I get him, always wondered how pigeons taste. 

[DeistByDefinition]

Lesson to be learned: Fish is easier to swallow than pigeon.

[aednil]

well my guess is that the pelican does n´t find enough fish in that little lake, so he has to rely on other smaller animals for his food supply; if you ask me, the real tragedy is that the pelican is living in that park rather that his natural habitat, in the first place.

[revjimbob]

If that was a London pigeon, the pelican must be dead by now.

[MrEpathykills]

it's odd how everyone seems to freak out about the pelican eating a bird, if it was a fish more then likely no one would even care.

[8journey8]

The behavior of the other pigeons reminded me somehow of the scene in the 1978 movie "The Time Machine" when the main character encounters the Eloi basking on the shores of a river. One of their female members has difficulty in the water and begins to drown. The others glance up and watch for a moment, then lose interest. They do nothing. The main character is shocked by their amoral attitude, and jumps in to save her. My point? I dunno. Pigeons are immoral? Or pelicans? Haha.

[QualiaSoup]

@8journey8 How funny, 8j8. 'Eloi' is what I said to Link when he told me about the indifferent pigeon. I was thinking of exactly the same scene.

[8journey8]

@QualiaSoup : I am honored that I am in such good company! I am subbed to you sir, and feel somehow proud that my thought was also to be found in your very analytical brain!!!

[QualiaSoup]

@8journey8 I thought 'Eloi' was going to be a slightly obscure reference, especially after the 2002 remake of the film, which was so different from the '60 and '78 versions. Some changes may have been for the better: I noticed the 2002 version ditched the name 'Weena' for the main female Eloi, and I think we can all understand why...(!)

[8journey8]

@QualiaSoup: Ah, it was the 60's version I described, right?. I wonder if watching films in my youth was the genesis of critical thinking skills foe me..(example)In the Time Machine movie, I wanted to know where the Eloi children were, and why everyone went into a trance when the siren sounded.When I asked I was told "It's only a movie!". It kinda reminded me of the reply to all religious questions "You have to have faith!". Both were oft-heard mantras back then. And about that trance...yeah.

[QualiaSoup]

@8journey8 Hmm, I'm not sure. I know the 1960 Rod Taylor version, but I gather the '78 remake was quite faithful. How sad for your folks that they were so dismissive! Sometimes that reaction can give you a stronger resolve to find your own answers, can't it (if it doesn't extinguish it). A scene that haunted me most as a young child was when all the unused books disintegrate. I remember being terrified by the emptiness of Eloi existence, never mind the silly Morlocks(!)

[kalsolarUK]

He should have tried to duck, much nicer.

[jhi1947]

Fook pelicans!

[stealthbadger]

Yeah. It's little scenes like this that remind me that "the beauty of nature" is a phrase that hides an incredibly complex reality that is quite often unpleasant for those directly participating in the exciting bits.

[QualiaSoup]

And who was it said they 'weren't brave enough' for 'The Woman in Black'? This from a peddler of Pelican Horror?? ;^>

I must admit, Link's vivid description of this stayed with me for a while. There are times when you find out wonderful things about nature and then there are times... well... like these(!)

[userwl2850]

@QualiaSoup hey,,, never mind comments, me and your other subscribers want more vids from you and theramintrees who.s also posted a comment here. come on guys,,,, chop chop.

[Renafangirl2021]

Wow, that was interesting. I never thought I would see anything like it. That's really frightening to me for some reason.

[CJones990]

Yay for TheraminTrees! :D

[fullfacility]

It's OK as long as they don't eat the squirrels.

[BrotherAlpha]

This is why pelicans should stick to fish. They go down easier.

[CuriousMoth]

And the moral of the story is: Pelicans are bastards.

[47f0]

A wonderful bird is the pelican.

Its beak can hold more than its belly can.

It can hold in its beak

Enough food for a week.

I'm damned if I know how the helican.

[ReligiousFiction]

@47f0 - MWAhaha! Awesome limerick!!!

[47f0]

@ReligiousFiction - Yeah, no credit to me, though - it's totally plagiarized, but the provenance of this particular bit of doggerel is in doubt, so I couldn't give proper attribution.

[6u6u7o]

wow dude! Thanks for the footage 

[TheraminTrees]

It was a quite a spectacle of nature we stumbled on that day wasn't it — brilliant that you were able to capture it so clearly. H's comment about the others not helping their friends reminds me how placid those other pigeons were, laying on the riverbank, seemingly oblivious of what was going on, even when the pelican first scooped the pigeon up from the group. Such a strange disconnection, considering there was a killer in their midst.

[ReligiousFiction]

@TheraminTrees - Those pigeons WERE complacent, weren't they?! It makes me wonder how many little dramas I miss every day. Thanks for sharing this with us - twice, now!

[j9dz2sf]

Lorsque le pélican, lassé-d'un long voyage,

Dans les brouillards du soir retourne à ses roseaux,

Ses petits affamés courent sur le rivage

En le voyant au loin s'abattre sur les eaux...

(nothing to do with that, but it's about pelicans... and food... and horrible things...)

[Gesmehod]

My mirror neurons are lighting up like a christmas tree right now.

Honestly, though, I'm more fascinated by the biology than the spectacle. I know the pelican's whole body is basically engineered for this kind of behavior, but it's something else seeing this bird with a scrawny pencil neck and hollow bones winning a struggle of wills with sheer muscle. Like a freakin boa constrictor.

[AIReject]

On a more relevant, less memetic note, I actually found it interesting that, at different points, I was actually rooting for both birds, from rooting for the pigeon to make its escape, to just wanting the pelican to be able to get it down. I knew already that pelicans did this, so it was more a matter of personifying what was going on rather than being shocked at what was occurring.

[ReligiousFiction]

@AIReject - That's how I feel any time I watch predator/prey interaction - I feel I'm rooting for both sides.

[AIReject]

Damn Nature! You Scary!

[Zentz29]

It's interesting to see RF change from being worried about the pigeon, to the pelican.

When did morality come into play?

Once the pigeon was supposedly dead, it was apperently more "moral" to worry about the pelican.

I felt bad for the pigeon as it was being slowly eaten, then I fealt bad for the pelican when I thought it might choke...

I can only assume that morality is based on specific situations & is apperently contradictory in some cases.

[Comp1337e]

Ah, good to see your open captioning. Now, would that be [oc], or [cc]? Also, I have a slight worry about labeling videos [cc] because I'm afraid it might be misunderstood as creative commons. :\

[synsei1]

4:03 "we're not just coward, we're glutton"

[supersmash43]

@synsei1 lol Pelicans would eat almost anything they can swallow!

[synsei1]

1st sentence is "ohhh, et vous l'avez caressé tout-à l'heure" (oh, and you stroked it earlier)