Video footage of a Great Blue Heron swallowing a giant rat in the Central Park pond has gone viral.
The gruesome incident was posted to Twitter by avian aficionado, David Barrett who has a birdwatching account called – Manhattan Bird Alert.
People who’ve watched the video praised the heron for helping curb New York’s burgeoning rat infestation people, which had become significantly worse during the pandemic.
“This bird doing the lord’s work getting rid of rats,” one viewer tweeted.
Another crowed, “Let’s put thousands of herons in the subway.”
But, Barrett said that more birds in the city don’t equal fewer rats because few breeds outside of hawks and herons eat large rodents.
It took the Great Blue Heron only a few seconds to lift the rat, once killed, out of the water and swallow it—this morning at the Central Park Pond. pic.twitter.com/E4Vx0ya8od
— Manhattan Bird Alert (@BirdCentralPark) September 5, 2021
A heron’s diet is “highly variable and adaptable, according to the environmental group Audubon.
According to the group’s website, the migratory bird has been seen “stalking voles and gophers in fields, capturing rails at edge of marsh [and] eating many species of small waterbirds,” according to the group’s website.
