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Jaw-dropping footage shows heron swallowing a huge rat in one fell swoop in New York

Jaw-dropping footage shows heron swallowing a huge rat in one fell swoop in New York

Well, that’s certainly one way to get rid of the rodents in New York.

Shocking footage has captured a hungry heron swallowing a massive rat in one fell swoop in Central Park.

The remarkable clip was shot by David Barrett, founder of Manhattan Bird Alert, who spotted the incident – which shows the bird killing the rodent before eating it whole – on Sunday morning.

Barrett then shared the video on his Manhattan Bird Alert Twitter account and wrote: “Great blue herons eat plenty of fish, but they won’t pass up a meaty and filling New York City rat—this morning at the Central Park Pond.”

He added that it took the bird “only a few seconds to lift the rat, once killed, out of the water and swallow it.”

Since then, the clip has been viewed nearly 80,000 times with people sharing their thoughts on the heron’s rat snack.

Some praised the heron for its small contribution to ridding the city of rats – with many recommending more herons should be used to help combat the problem.

Some compared the heron’s savage hunting skills to that of a velociraptor (the rat never stood a chance did it?)

Meanwhile, others were understandably disgusted at witnessing nature at its ugly best.

The pandemic hasn’t helped with rat matters in New York, with the number of rodent complaints to a city hotline surging by 80 per cent from last March 2020 to March this year, according to Bloomberg.

And, apparently, huge rats are not actually part of a heron’s diet, Barrett told the New York Post. The birds typically eat frogs, crabs and smaller rodents.

Therefore, we sadly cannot expect herons to fix New York’s rat problem anytime soon.

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