Trout are opportunistic predators, and one 19 inch rainbow was recorded eating nearly 20 shrew, a small mouse-like mammal at Togiak National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
The trout was cut open after scientists determine it was going to die and 19 shrews were found inside. The trout was about 19 inches long, and according to refuge fisheries biologist Mark Lisac, was a “fairly pedestrian” size trout.
The trout was captured during a rainbow trout project.
That’s ” an awful lot for one fish to put down,” Lisac told LiveScience. That said, rainbows and related fish species have been known to eat shrews and other small mammals, including rodents, and many species of freshwater fish are opportunistic feeders that will chow down on a wide variety of prey, he said.
This rainbow trout report trumps the previous record of seven shrews eaten (at least that Lisac is aware of), which was held by a grayling, another species of fish that “keys in on shrews even more” than rainbows, Lisac said. [Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish]
But how did the rainbow end up with such a large shrew meal?
Read more here.…
photo courtesy: http://www.theepochtimes.com
