We’re all familiar with the phrase “the early bird gets the worm,” but allow me to introduce you to another potential saying rewarding those of us who swoop in late and take all the credit: “the lurking heron gets the fish.”
First off, this poor fish was having itself a no good, terrible, very bad day. The life of a fish is nowhere even close to how it plays out in Finding Nemo, though I’m sure some parts are partially accurate.
The more wild animal and outdoor related videos that I see, the more I realize that everything in the Animal Kingdom is either trying to eat something else or about to be eaten by something else. I’m sure there are a couple of enjoyable moments here and there for creatures in the wild, though it seems like there isn’t much of a “live it up” middle ground.
My theory holds true in this video, as I count one shark and one blue heron trying to eat the fish, and one panicked fish doing its darnedest to not be something else’s next meal. Taking the fight to the coastline might have appeared to be a decent idea for the fish’s getaway plan, yet it ended up just bringing another land predator into the mix.
This is definitely one of those “wait until the end” types of videos, because you don’t really see the blue heron come in until the very end. Honestly, if the fish was just battling against the shark, I think it was going to somehow get away.
The tiny fish was putting on a juking clinic, showing NFL level elusiveness and breaking the shark’s ankles (figuratively speaking) left and right. As it took the chase beneath the dock, I personally think it got a little cocky and was feeling itself, totally forgetting that attacks can always come from above as well if you are a fish.
The camera work in its entirety is excellent, up until the moment where they didn’t turn the camera around fast enough to catch the heron picking the fish out of the water. I’m guessing the sneaky bird was setting up shop under the dock, because otherwise I have no idea where it came from.
Surely the shark will go on to catch some other unfortunate fish, and the heron will certainly continue its ninja-like fishing. However, it’s the end of the road for the juking fish, who like Icarus in Greek mythology, flew too close to the sun and then got eaten by a bird.
Take a look:
