I feel like my perception of pelicans stems from Nigel in Finding Nemo, the cool Aussie pelican that helped Nemo escape the dentist office. Of course, then I turned eight-years-old, and you learn that pelicans are fierce hunters, with big old bucket mouths, that will go to great lengths to hunt down prey.
And if you needed the perfect example, here it is.
In this wild video, you can see a brown pelican fiercely chase down an osprey that is latching onto a fish it had just caught. As the pelican chases the osprey down to retrieve the fish, you can see it open its pouch-like beak. The pelican’s pouch-like beak allows the creature to scoop up prey from the water with incredible ease.
Unfortunately for the pelican, the osprey ultimately wins this battle from what we can see in the video, as it still has the small fish within its grasp by the end.
Mark Smith, the incredible wildlife photographer who captured this insane scene, hilariously wrote in the caption:
“The gaping maw of the brown pelican is just frightening. Anything that goes into that black inky abyss isn’t coming out.
Someone should make a classic B horror movie about these birds. Make them 12 feet tall and hunt humans. Throw in an 18 foot tall blue heron for variety. I think it would be a cult hit!”
Now that’s a horror movie worth seeing right there.
Check it out:
