It’s a photo that has taken the internet by storm, but the truth behind what is actually happening is far more sinister than most people realize. That cute little weasel riding on a woodpecker’s back? Yeah, he’s trying to kill his feathered friend.
Photographer Martin Le-May, of the United Kingdom, was out for a walk with his wife when he spotted the epic sky battle. The amateur photographer says it was just dumb luck that allowed him to capture the moment with his camera. Said Le-May,
“I heard a distressed squawking noise and feared the worst…I soon realised it was a woodpecker with some kind of small mammal on its back…I think we may have distracted the weasel as when the woodpecker landed it managed to escape and the weasel ran into the grass.”
The image is reminiscent of some sort of “Neverending Story” type of fairy tale. But that weasel and woodpecker’s relationship was nothing like Bastian and Falkor’s.
Wildlife expert Lucy Cooke explained exactly what was going on and why.
“The green woodpecker is a ground-feeding bird, but weasels normally attack rabbits. The woodpecker is not its usual prey…But weasels are fearless…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.”
The fearless weasel was thankfully scared away by Mr. Le-May, and our woodpecker friend was able to escape. The fearless weasel lioness had to retreat into the grass with an empty stomach. But who knows? Maybe she took down a deer later that afternoon.
