As a photographer I've spent a lot of time watching herons hunt, and eat. The more I watch them the more I'm grateful that we're too big for them to swallow.
Animals don’t blink like us specially when hunting can you imagine your lock on target then blink,and in their turf,killed or be killed every day not like “ oh I feel hungry let’s drive to mc Donald’s for some fries 🍟 “ we are the most spoiled 😣😣😣🤪
@Patrick Nelson Herons are so interesting because while they, like all birds, are dinosaurs, their hunting method more closely resembles that of the azhdarchid pterosaurs than anything else. Likely the dinosaur lineage refilling the empty niche their dearly departed cousins left behind.
@@TrusttheY Modern birds descended from therapod dinosaurs. Birds are modern day dinosaurs. www.nbcnews.com/id/28985201/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/nine-links-transition-dinosaurs-birds/#.XzB_MK-SlPY
@@ladabe4979 The bird's throat is like a garden water hose. If you take a gopher and stuffed it into a garden water hose there is no way the gopher can even open its mouth while inside the water hose to chew its way out.
Wow!!! Awesome and awesome video/production!! A good reason/reminder to NOT USE POISON!!! We don't want poison to kill these amazing and beneficial creatures that keep nature in balance as much as we screw it up! ☮️
I have seen how aggressively these birds avoid humans, and how far away they keep themselves from us. You must have an _incredible_ lens, to get such great footage!
Saw one of these guys eat a WHOLE box turtle in the Everglades once. Thought he would choke and die for sure but he he kept drinking water and eventually the turtle disappeared. One of the strangest things in nature I've ever seen, could see the shape of the turtle in his neck.
Imagine being that gophers buddy just chillin underground together an the next thing you know a big ass beak crashes through ur ceiling an snatches him away 😳
Pocket gophers, also known as moles...very different from Prairie dogs, also called gophers. Pocket gophers live underground and leave mounds of soil everywhere up top.
That blank emotionless stare as it grips the frantically struggling gopher in its bill....the bird has neither the capability, nor the inclination, to empathize with mammalian distress. "I admire its purity. A survivor... Unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.”
James Merryman I know, I’m just being unnecessarily melodramatic. I mean when you get right down to it, cats have very little variation in facial expression vs dogs or some other mammals - possibly related to their less social lifestyle. But I’ve always noted the particularly “alien” quality that some predatory birds have to them. The quote is from the movie “Alien” in fact.
@Sorken.1994 I would do my best to give you a short extended life in a large tank set-up like an ant terrarium but for gophers (on demand corn snake food) ... It's just difficult to save every gopher caught because my dog Bo likes to swallow them whole if I don't grab them quick enough. I call gophers "California hamsters" because they are so similar.
Sandy: "I want you to kill every gopher on the course!" Carl Spackler: "Check me if I'm wrong, Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers, they're gonna lock me up and throw away the key...
@@shin-ishikiri-no People don't care for gophers because they're considered pests. Digging holes in lawns in pastures, which can also be a tripping hazard for humans and livestock.
To all the people that disliked this - don't be delusional please, you're witnessing nature. Nature isn't cruelty free and certainly isn't pleasant when when it comes to getting fed. It's marvelous to watch these birds hunt, it's something you don't see every day. Just take a step away from your sheltered, unrealistic world view for a moment and simply take for what it is - an animal doing what it does best. Thank you.
@@kasper7574 I wouldn't, but then again you're trying to compare murder to an animal hunting for food to survive, which couldn't be more different. Do you have any other favorite animals? Lions, sharks, foxes or wolves perhaps? Do you know what mother nature has them do on a daily basis to survive or are you just in denial? Nature is beautiful and unforgiving, stop trying to get it to conform to what you believe because it's not only wrong, it's dangerous - look up Grizzly Man for an example.
Do you think they try to spear their prey when they hunt for birds or rodents? or do you think it happens sometimes on accident when they're trying to grab it.
I've seen times it on purpose as they'd repeatedly do so and other times they'd just grip it. I think it's based off of experience & preferences of the heron. But that's a guess from observation.
A heron visited my yard once and proceeded to eat all the fish in the pond. It came back the next day but I hadn't replaced the stock yet. 8 years I had that batch of fish without any predation. Now I have fishing line but one or two gets eaten every summer
I saw a heron catch and eat a gopher in the Presidio about 1/2 block from the Lombard gate this afternoon. I noticed him stalking exactly as in this video, and waited around to see the catch and eat.
![ค้างคืนโรงเก็บกระสวยอวกาศร้างกลางทะเลทราย [Around The World Ep. 3]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E5bWZQhABJE/mqdefault.jpg)
As a photographer I've spent a lot of time watching herons hunt, and eat. The more I watch them the more I'm grateful that we're too big for them to swallow.
Some 60mil. years ago our ancestors were as big as the gophers.
No shit! That's nightmare material
Ugly Cactus
Lol no.
@@DB-rc9ln lol yes
@BlackAce223 DeathRose308 they crush the bones and then suffocate it in its throat as you could see in The video
I could gopher a snack myself.
maybe gopher two snacks?
Or you could gopher 3
gopher 4, anyone?
@@saturatedcranium may be gopher 5
Maybe order a 6 pc?
If it weren't for Heron's, Golden Gate Park will be over populated by gophers. They're digging up holes all over the park.
Natural fishermen too keeping bait fish in check here in Michigan
I've got a chipmunk problem on the east coast send them here
Michael Leonetti lol
Do heron's hunt/eat cats? My alley is full of strays that needs to be taken care of ASAP....
@@maximillionroivas3893 no, fortunately cats are too big. just call animal control
*I Will Never Forget Those Eyes*
Animals don’t blink like us specially when hunting can you imagine your lock on target then blink,and in their turf,killed or be killed every day not like “ oh I feel hungry let’s drive to mc Donald’s for some fries 🍟 “ we are the most spoiled 😣😣😣🤪
@@spencer82rocks nope just the top dogs of the animal food chain we have the power to remove anything fro. This planet entirely if we choose to
Lol
Those eyes really do remind me of a velociraptor or something like that.
@@urbancyber3603 tell that to a canetoad.
Poor gophers, they're still living in a Jurassic world
Underrated.
Birds _are_ dinosaurs after all, so it makes sense!
@@patricknelson Birds are birds, not dinos. Two separate kinds of animals. You've been duped!
@Patrick Nelson Herons are so interesting because while they, like all birds, are dinosaurs, their hunting method more closely resembles that of the azhdarchid pterosaurs than anything else.
Likely the dinosaur lineage refilling the empty niche their dearly departed cousins left behind.
I'd hear the gophers screaming in the morning during the herons breakfast time in the south SF bay. Nature is awesome!
Seeing this truly does make me believe Dinosaur evolved in to certain birds
It is cool
Yes, yes, Clarice, I bet you can still hear the crying of those little gophers you couldn't save. Can you?
@@michaelmcdonald1627 Nope. Team heron all the way!
Is awesome hearing a massacre?
Look out mammals -- dinosaurs walk among us.
But they don't.....
@@TrusttheY Modern birds descended from therapod dinosaurs. Birds are modern day dinosaurs. www.nbcnews.com/id/28985201/ns/technology_and_science-science/t/nine-links-transition-dinosaurs-birds/#.XzB_MK-SlPY
@@TrusttheY yes they do
Yusuf Baaghil crocodiles are dinosaurs you know?
@@goated-yt2370 no, they aren't.
I’m in SF and gophers have taken over my backyard. Time to get a pet heron.
Have you checked out rent a heron?
@@joselugo3685 hope he does not confuse it with rent a heroin
Nice I’m right by the bay too, beach view
What is SF?
@@mickcarson8504 San Francisco or South Famerica
They're just cutting down on their seafood intake. A conscious lifestyle choice to reduce intake of mercury. Damn these birds are smart 😂😂😂
Dang! I was thinking they'd tear the gophers apart before eating but they swallowed them whole.
@James Merryman would it be possible for one of them to chew their way out after being swallowed if they were still alive?
@@ladabe4979 did you read it tho;-;
@James Merryman Cold hard yet beautiful nature. Where's your messiah now, Flanders?
@@ladabe4979 The bird's throat is like a garden water hose. If you take a gopher and stuffed it into a garden water hose there is no way the gopher can even open its mouth while inside the water hose to chew its way out.
@James Merryman thank you Professor. It was a question I've always thought to myself as a child.
Can you rent one, the neighbors just hate it when you shoot at the lawn with a Mauser.
@Daver G Dunno man, grenades are also effective.
@Daver G compensate with more grenades until neighbors stop complaining.
I use a .177 air rifle. Dirt cheap, safe and way too much fun.
@@arnoldtm31 .22 is better for gopher. They're tough little bastards. .177 has to be perfectly placed which is tough with a cheaper pellet gun
Just use a nuke. It solves your gopher problem, and your neighbors _won't_ complain about it.
Wow!!! Awesome and awesome video/production!! A good reason/reminder to NOT USE POISON!!! We don't want poison to kill these amazing and beneficial creatures that keep nature in balance as much as we screw it up! ☮️
Still so many humans spray Roundup on their lawns & gardens. Foolish Sheeple!
Brilliant camerawork, editing and soundtrack choices and placement. A small masterpiece indeed.
I have seen how aggressively these birds avoid humans, and how far away they keep themselves from us. You must have an _incredible_ lens, to get such great footage!
Ok that like the most dramatic music on a nature piece I've ever heard...and perfect timing too. 👍
😂lol 👊
Saw one of these guys eat a WHOLE box turtle in the Everglades once. Thought he would choke and die for sure but he he kept drinking water and eventually the turtle disappeared. One of the strangest things in nature I've ever seen, could see the shape of the turtle in his neck.
herons are such glorious creatures, they seem like visitors from the dinosaur age more so than other birds
They really do look like dinosaurs! They way it was stalking made me think of those velociraptors in Jurassic Park.😮
да, ровесники динозавров. 150 млн лет инволюции. кроту 5 млн лет. они бывшие люди, деградировавшие. Теория Инволюции.
Imagine being that gophers buddy just chillin underground together an the next thing you know a big ass beak crashes through ur ceiling an snatches him away 😳
I need 3-4 of those birds in my yard PRONTO!!!
That heron needed a break from it's constant fish diet.
How is this “graphic”? This is just nature in its simplest form. Do people expect animals to hold hands and eat rainbow candy together?
easy there tough guy
As a person who has grown up watching nature documentaries not that graphic especially since we didn't even hear the gophers screaming
Sweet Tarts
They’re in California, so probably
Well you know how people these days are getting soft and get offended over anything easily... wait
1:10 that eye is stone cold velociraptor.
Was literally thinking the same thing!
I've never seen a velocirapor
How do you know? No one alive today has ever seen a velociraptor eye.
@@sunsoutgunsout2046 dude havent you seen the movies? they totally know what they look like!
@@Peterisheree you got me there.
God the heron's lifeless eyes are terrifying
When they move their heads to look around it's even more! It's like the raptors in Jurassic park looking for the victims
Exactly! The emotionless look birds have when taking down prey is just so eerie
Looks like theres a bunch of gophers running around with giant stab wounds from just missing being lunch
Cheers to whoever edited the music to synchronize when the heron attacked the gopher
Jesus...its like a bow and arrow. The neck tenses like drawing back the string, then strikes - the release of the arrow! Intense...😐
My goodness...😧 It's amazing how they could digest them without even chewing before they swallow?
Tough to chew with a beak.
Makes me wonder, do herons make pellets out of undigested bones and fur, the same way owls do?
@@FriendlyMarmot Yes. They do.
They do their best to break bone or paralyze their prey by crushing spine, etc before swallowing.
they swallow a whole lot of duckling one after the other .Not so cool to watch .
Imagine watching those eyes fade away as you slide down the tube of darkness.
Amazing how some animals have adapted to living in cities.
They’re going deeper and deeper into the city! The wild is coming back to the cities and I kinda like it
"The only good gopher, is a dead gopher". Bill Murray.
By far the best heron-eating-rodent video compilation I've seen.
I rather enjoyed that. But then gophers are ruining my lawn, so...
San Francisco heron hunting gophers is really rare, it is not easy to photograph herons hunting gophers, see the end, great video, great sharing! 👍👍👍
I’ve seen them fishing along the river but never knew what they were after on land. Now I do.
Man....the music made that intense!!!
Pocket gophers, also known as moles...very different from Prairie dogs, also called gophers. Pocket gophers live underground and leave mounds of soil everywhere up top.
Looks like Bill Murray's problems in Caddyshack would have been solved if he got a heron.
Umm remind me not to come back as a Gopher in San Fran
That blank emotionless stare as it grips the frantically struggling gopher in its bill....the bird has neither the capability, nor the inclination, to empathize with mammalian distress.
"I admire its purity. A survivor... Unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.”
James Merryman I know, I’m just being unnecessarily melodramatic. I mean when you get right down to it, cats have very little variation in facial expression vs dogs or some other mammals - possibly related to their less social lifestyle. But I’ve always noted the particularly “alien” quality that some predatory birds have to them. The quote is from the movie “Alien” in fact.
@James Merryman Thanks for the detailed info! Science!
I need 3 or 4 of these.. wait, my house doesn't have a lawn. Never mind.
great video 👍👍👍👍👍 great sound FX
They remind me of the raptors from Jurassic Park III
Usually I dislike music in nature films, this however is phenomenal for this video,perfect timing, kudos!BTW great videos !!
When the apocalypse comes - I want an army of Heron's.
Omfg! Thank you sooo much for recording all of this and posting it.
Heron looks at camera wanna see something cool kids
The sadist who put this gem together, wow.
0h my god nooo that little gopher arms and paws struggling to get away at 1:13. It was so adorable😭😭😭😭
It’s all fun and games until you twist your ankle on a hidden gopher hole.
Ate they still alive when they swallow them?
Now how do I get these birds in my backyard
I think it's the same question as how do you get customers in your restaurant? You need good marketing and sales. Try hanging dead gophers on a stick
If you have a pond and add fishes you don’t care about they might come if you have herons in your area
@@WohtotheMax dear God man
My dad's dog Bo would be proud. We hunt gophers together by hand and paw every spring. Bonding activity 😁
@Sorken.1994 I would do my best to give you a short extended life in a large tank set-up like an ant terrarium but for gophers (on demand corn snake food) ... It's just difficult to save every gopher caught because my dog Bo likes to swallow them whole if I don't grab them quick enough. I call gophers "California hamsters" because they are so similar.
Sandy: "I want you to kill every gopher on the course!" Carl Spackler: "Check me if I'm wrong, Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers, they're gonna lock me up and throw away the key...
"Its not my fault nobody can understand what your saying"
Heron's take on the "Big Gulp" is awesome. Bon apetít. Cheers!
Clever editing!
Thanks for a great video. Really nice quality and sound.
Think the gopher was saying “please I have a wife and children”
Heron be like : *oh? Where might I ask?*
I’ve watched them for years. Herons are brutal and merciless.
Thanks youtube algorithms
Excellent camera work. Thank you.
Holy S! I’m hungry
Superb editing and sound. And the Oscar goes to ...
Nobody wants to talk about the black top heron crisis is killing our gopher youth
The opioid crisis with claws and a beak.
Excellent editing and music! Great job 👍
one of the only animals we dont feel bad for seeing getting eaten
Why?
@@shin-ishikiri-no People don't care for gophers because they're considered pests. Digging holes in lawns in pastures, which can also be a tripping hazard for humans and livestock.
Wow ..... I NEVER realized how much Herons legs got so much in common with the old lady ? I called her sticks ! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
LOOKS LIKE NANCY PELOSI!!!😂😂
If Trump is a rat, then yes
My aunt loves the great blues because if there's ever a rat in the yard the great blue is going to find it
Plus they're so elegant to look at!
We have herons down here in North Carolina all the time, they seem pretty docile to humans.
The precision of all those strikes is _freaking terrifying._
To all the people that disliked this - don't be delusional please, you're witnessing nature. Nature isn't cruelty free and certainly isn't pleasant when when it comes to getting fed.
It's marvelous to watch these birds hunt, it's something you don't see every day. Just take a step away from your sheltered, unrealistic world view for a moment and simply take for what it is - an animal doing what it does best. Thank you.
I'd bet you'd enjoy watching somone stab another person to death...
@@kasper7574 I wouldn't, but then again you're trying to compare murder to an animal hunting for food to survive, which couldn't be more different.
Do you have any other favorite animals? Lions, sharks, foxes or wolves perhaps? Do you know what mother nature has them do on a daily basis to survive or are you just in denial?
Nature is beautiful and unforgiving, stop trying to get it to conform to what you believe because it's not only wrong, it's dangerous - look up Grizzly Man for an example.
I see these all the time here in montreal i love to watch them hunt so cool
Do you think they try to spear their prey when they hunt for birds or rodents? or do you think it happens sometimes on accident when they're trying to grab it.
I've seen times it on purpose as they'd repeatedly do so and other times they'd just grip it. I think it's based off of experience & preferences of the heron. But that's a guess from observation.
1:14 "You see this sh*t, camera man? _You're next._ "
Never heard anyone call a mole a gopher before ........I guess it is the left coast
They also swallow tiny ducklings and baby birds ..Nature for sure .Never should any kind of poison be used .
I came for the nature, but stayed for James Merryman's reply comments!
The sounds design was beautiful
Very scary for the gophers. I wonder what they went through while being swallowed whole like that. 🤔
Their last thought was "Oh shit! I'm gonna be shit!!" lol
A heron visited my yard once and proceeded to eat all the fish in the pond. It came back the next day but I hadn't replaced the stock yet. 8 years I had that batch of fish without any predation. Now I have fishing line but one or two gets eaten every summer
The gunshot and heartbeat sfx are priceless 😂
I saw a heron catch and eat a gopher in the Presidio about 1/2 block from the Lombard gate this afternoon. I noticed him stalking exactly as in this video, and waited around to see the catch and eat.
Damn. That's kinda like fawked up
So what keeps the gophers from clawing and biting inside?
Makes you wonder since gophers are diggers, if a live one just keeps going and exits the heron's opposite end?
Gophers are such an easy snack now im hungry
How many big rocks do these guys strike
I need to hire them for my gopher problem!
Those drum patterns are intense😮😮😮
I love these birds their very independent i like how they roll solo
Dinosaurs man! Living, breathing dinosaurs!
It looked like it was tenderizing that gopher by crushing it's bones top to bottom before swallowing.
I think it was trying to snap the spine/neck for a quick death. Owls do this too to stop a struggle when trying to eat >:9
@@mangoslormpy7618 Maybe, but I've also seen herons swallow living things whole as well. I guess we'll have to ask the heron.
Great montage and music!
How did she kill the gopher ? Squeeze it with her beak ? I just see her toss back and force then it just goes limp
So glad these herons are adapting to the urban jungle. They'll survive.
This isn't an adaptation to some sort of human-induced problem. It's normal behavior.
What is the name of the first piece of music from this video?
In Caddyshack 3 Bill Murray's character buys a couple of herons to help him with the gopher problem on the golf course.
Do you know what gophers can do to a golf course?
I thought they just ate fish.....
This is so satisfying to watch. Those little bastards are ruining my lawn. I need a few of those birds haha