Rare Predatory Behavior of African Tigerfish Captured on Camera [VIDEO]

A rare predatory behavior of an African tigerfish lunging out of the water and grabbing a low flying swallow was caught on camera by a team of scientists.

The bizarre predatory behavior of a freshwater fish feeding on birds has not been reported earlier. The act was captured on camera by a team of scientists at the North-West University, Potchedstroom, South Africa.

"The whole action of jumping and catching the swallow in flight happens so incredibly quickly that after we first saw it, it took all of us a while to really fully comprehend what we had just seen," Nico Smit, director of the Unit for Environmental Sciences, told Nature. "The first reaction was one of pure joy, because we realized that we were spectators to something really incredible and unique."

The team who captured the footage were on a mission to study the migration habits and feeding behavior of tigerfish in Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa. The team captured nearly 20 successful preying attempts of the tigerfish on swallows during their 15 days survey.

Media sources claim that the team spotted two different methods used by the fish to prey on the birds. They either chased a prey at the surface level or just under it before grabbing it or they engage in direct aerial attack that initiate from greater depths. Out of the two strategies, the second method was more successful.

According to BBC, scientists used radio tags to trace the movement of the African tigerfish that is listed as 'least concern' by the IUCN. The scientists noticed that the fish mainly hunted for their prey during the early morning hours and evening and not during the day.

"We hope that our findings will really focus the attention on the importance of basic freshwater research, and specifically fish behaviour," Smit added.

This finding was documented in the Journal of Fish Biology.